In Dialogue

Elizabeth Dee is pleased to announce the upcoming group exhibition In Dialogue with works by Cecily Brown, Jacqueline Humphries, Blake Rayne, Pieter Schoolwerth, Josh Smith and Charline Von Heyl. The exhibition will open on Saturday, January 21th with a reception for the artists from 6-8 PM.

Bringing various approaches to the conceptual area of abstraction beyond the stylistic approaches to paint, the works in this group show collectively speak to ideas and concerns that span two generations of painting in New York.

Given the renewed interest in conversational and collective voices within artistic practice, it is a pleasure to see that a relative parallel exists among the seemingly isolated practice of painting. Bringing some of these aspects to light, the show was inspired by conversations that have taken place in the gallery over the past year. The participating six artists embody diverse and overlapping conversations about abstraction and the painting process, not just in the pictorial sense but through the boundaries and problematic implications that the word implies.

About the artists:

Cecily Brown delves into American and European traditions of abstraction through her gestured action while innovating perceptions of recognizable space. In 1998 Brown wrote an article entitled “Painting Epiphany: Happy Days Are Where, Again?” which was published in Flash Art magazine. She has become one of the key figures in the strong resurgence of painting at the end of the nineties. Since then she has had solo exhibitions at the Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., the MACRO, Rome and the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.

Jacqueline Humphries also mines these European vs. American traditions while extending the boundaries of expressionist impetus. The cliché of her chosen material, Day-Glo pigments on panel in a UV Blacklight environment, furthers her work in this area. Humphries was born in New Orleans in 1960. She has participated in solo exhibitions at Greene Naftali Gallery, NYEHAUS, New York, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany and originally showed at the John Goode Gallery in the early 90s.

Group exhibitions include Against The Wall, ICA Philadelphia, Fondacao Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

B lake Rayne’s use of representational and abstract processes explores some of the modernist vernaculars of image creation in a uniquely wide platform. Born in Delaware in 1969, Rayne has exhibited Greene Naftali Gallery, at Reena Spaulings, and Artist Space.

Pieter Schoolwerth’s aggressively visual and populated paintings are the most representational in the group, yet his conceptual philosophies of abstraction and the problematic issues of painting are the driving force behind his practice. Schoolwerth was born in 1970 in St. Louis. He has shown at Elizabeth Dee and American Fine Arts, New York. Museum exhibitions include; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, ICA Boston and the Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT.

Josh Smith’s paintings of his name, iterate and destroy through disciplined repetition the distractions of handwriting. Born in North Carolina, Smith has shown with Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Johnathan Viner, London and Reena Spaulings, New York.

Charline von Heyl’s formal abstractions position opposing approaches with surprising fresness and sincerity. Born in Germany in 1960, Von Heyl has exhibited widely with solo exhibitions at Friedrich Petzel, New York, Dallas Museum of Art, Viennia Secession and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.

Pressetext

In Dialogue:
Cecily Brown, Jacqueline Humphries, Blake Rayne, Pieter Schoolwerth, Josh Smith, Charline von Heyl