8 May 2008 to 30 July 2008
Hours : Tuesday through Saturday, 10 - 6 pm
Reception on Thursday, May 8, 6-8 pm.
Robert Miller Gallery
524 West 26th Street
NY 10001
New York, NY
New York
North America
p: 1 212.366.4774
m:
f: 1 212.366.4454
w: www.robertmillergallery.com
Nils Folke Anderson Untitled, 2008 Expanded polystyrene [EPS], Dimensions variable
GEOMETRY AS IMAGE - May 8 through July 30, 2008 Reception on Thursday, May 8, 6-8 pm
Geometry persists as a vernacular for contemporary artists. It continues to flourish in innumerable guises, often in transgressive dialogue with the pure and reductive aesthetics of its modernist past. This exhibition brings together works from differing media and practices. The geometric forms found in these works are not platonic, absolute, concrete or fixed, but rather use the language of geometry in particular subjectivity. The works presented here reclaim geometry not as fact or ideal but �as image�.
In his Untitled Neon Corner Piece, 1969 Keith Sonnier uses neon line to describe volume in space, creating a work that becomes a perceptual event transcending objecthood. Anthony McCall is one of the seminal artists of American avant garde cinema. His suite of drawings, Studies for �Leaving� (360� rotation, seen from the left and from the right), 2006 is a study for a light projection piece. McCall�s works have evolved from cinema to the realm of sculpture. In his work Measurement 97" (Horizontal; Flush Down), 2002, Mel Bochner, a crucial figure among the conceptual artists of the 1960s and 70s, uses geometry to play on the illusive relationship of phenomenon and concept. Al Held, in reaction to gestural Expressionism and commercial Pop, forcefully revived the language of geometry for painting in the 1970s and 80s. He continued to develop and evolve his geometric vision and was characteristically working on evermore inventive and ambitious works up to the time of his death in 2005. In Phoenicia V, 1969 Held honed in on the paradox of surface and space. Ilya Bolotowsky applies geometric abstraction to a three dimensional form. Flat planes of color articulate a three-dimensional form to imply rectilinear color volumes. In Untitled wraparound I, 2007, Andrew Spence�s strict formalist approach is energized by the illusion of multiple overlaps and by linear elements that run around the edge of the painting to subvert the convention of the picture plane and bring it into tension with the object-presence of the canvas. One of the seminal artists of his generation, Joel Shapiro creates sculptures based on iterations of rectangular volumes that suggest the figurative and architectural and at the same time resist coalescing into the representational. John Duff helped open new possibilities for sculpture in the 1980s with a fresh attitude toward material and sculptural form. In his plaster and steel work Cosa Mentale IV, 2002, Duff plays off of the �Minimalist block� with a set of almost musical variations that extend into space. Kenneth Snelson constructs large scale, stainless steel and aluminum constructions in a unique and immediately recognizable style. Each piece consists of rods arranged in geometric constructions held in tension by cables, creating an illusion of weightlessness that Snelson calls �floating compression.� The structures of Nils Folke Anderson each consist of nine large-scale polystyrene interlocking squares set in precise, site-specific geometric arrangements that propose the work of art as a set of possibilities. John Pai meticulously joins welding rods into open steel structures that develop organically as they occupy space. Dustin Yellin builds layers of resin, each layer bearing a drawing in ink, that accumulate to form an inscrutable and illusory structure. Walter Niedermayr�s multi-panel photographs subtly expand the traditional spatial and temporal limits of photography. In Felskin IV, the looming geometry of a steel structure appears in a stark contrast to tiny, scattered skiers. Mayumi Terada constructs maquettes of architectural settings and documents them in photographs. In SHOWER 011101, geometric form and an architectural rendering merge. Kjell Varvin�s installations combine seemingly casual objects in space with the illusion of space. The transition from three dimensions to two is both seamless and jarring.
