Like a breath of fresh air, the exhibition Fresh Paint showcases a vibrant array of recent work by 18 eclectic artists at the new Greenwich Village gallery Art of Our Century.
Half of the participating artists are exhibiting work that has never been shown before. "The first thing I asked the artists was, 'Do you have new work that you’d like to show?'" curator John Gagné explained last Friday, the day following the jam-packed opening reception for Fresh Paint. Along with recently completed works, the exhibit also includes pieces Gagné finds "startling, surprising, courageous, charming, and seductive."
L-R: Natasha Wright, Street Ophelia, 2019; Libby Rosa, Phony Frame, 2020 (center, top); Anna Oritiz, Flor, 2019 (center, bottom); and Justin Neely's Performing February 1, 2019 at Spectrum NYC (right, top), Performing January 5, 2019 at Spectrum NYC (right, center), Performing January 5, 2019 at Spectrum NYC (right, bottom).
The artwork presented in the group show runs the gamut from "abstraction to figuration and representation, the 18 artists in Fresh Paint have each developed their own visual vocabulary and boldly push color, shape and subject matter to new expressions," according to the press release.
Abstract works include Melissa Capasso’s intense canvases filled with vibrant colors and forms and Jeffrey Kurland’s diptych, Breaking Violet, created by pouring paint onto the canvases and covering them with a large plastic sheet which he manipulates to control the chaos of the shapes. Kurland’s work was featured in a solo show at Art of Our Century’s inaugural exhibition in January.
Left: Kylin O'Brien, Journey Into A Realistic Black Hole, 2019 (top); Robin Roi's Niblo's Garden, 2019, White Dragon, 2019 (top), and Ruby, 2019 (bottom). Center (top to bottom): Melissa Capasso's Summer Mountains, 2019 and Farewell Ceremony, 2019; Anna Ortiz, La Sequia, 2019; Cecilia Whittaker-Doe, Ordered and Divided, 2020. Right: Johnny Thornton, Shitty L'il Flower Painting (Alteration), 2019 (top); Hermann Mejia, Cabeza de Pedro, 2019 (center); Johnny Thornton, Unknown Bride, 2020 (bottom).
Left: Johnny Thornton, Shitty L'il Flower Painting (Alteration), 2019 (top); Hermann Mejia, Cabeza de Pedro, 2019 (center); Johnny Thornton, Unknown Bride, 2020 (bottom). Center: Kylin O'Brien, Shiva Lingam, Genome, 2019; Melissa Capasso's Break Dancer, 2019 and Tattoo You, 2019 (to right); Dale Williams, Osip Mandelstam (Profiles for Democracy), 2019; Right: Paul Gagner, Sir Vape-A-Lot, 2019; Johnny Thornton, Unknown Women of 1934, 2019.
Justin Neely’s three performative paintings were created while accompanying live musical acts. "You can almost hear the horns," Gagné said of the dynamic black-and-white piece, Performing January 5, 2019 at Spectrum NYC.
Kylin O’Brien’s canvases are influenced by physics. Her Journey Into a Realistic Black Hole simplifies the complex dimensions of a black hole into an "ethereal" and "poetic" piece, Gagne noted. Cecilia Whittaker-Doe’s trio of landscapes allows viewers to see the details of trees, leaves, water, and the forest simultaneously. "There’s detail and a kind of a landscape happening all at once," Gagné noted.
Libby Rosa, In The Park, 2018 (left); Cecilia Whittaker-Doe's A Brilliant Life, 2020 (center, top) and At This Season, 2019 (center, bottom); Eva Ennist's Lotus Temple #1, 2013 (right, top) and Lotus Temple #9, 2013 (right, bottom).
Greg Griffith, Buildings, Window, Plant, 2020 (left); Manju Shandler's Thoughts, 2017 (center, top), Star Gazer, 2017 (center, bottom) and Winged, 2019 (right, top); AM DeBrincat's Pixelvision, 2019 (right, center) and Storm, 2019 (right, bottom).
Andrew Smenos, Rising Tides... et cetera, et cetera, 2019 (left); Jeffrey Kurland, Breaking Violet, 2019 (right)
Originally from New Zealand, Bushwick-based artist Natasha Wright’s moody Street Ophelia features an upended female figure. The large-scale canvas is "quite raw" Gagné said, but "at the same time there’s a kind of tenderness." Hermann Mejia uses thick brush strokes to create the mesmerizing Cabeza de Perro (Dog Head), with red strikes indicating the animal’s bark. Imperceptible at first glance, "the closer you get to it, it breaks down in an interesting way and then it resolves," Gagné explained of the image.
AM DeBrincat’s mixed-media works vibrantly combine images found online with painting while Manju Shandler incorporates painting, drawing, and sewing for her intricate pieces. Toronto-based Eva Ennist employs encaustic and fiber to recreate the modern Indian house of worship, the Lotus Temple, while Robin Roi patiently allows the metal leaf on her Asian-influenced woodblocks to oxide for an intriguing patina.
The vibrant hues of Greg Griffith’s minimal Buildings, Window, Plant practically vibrate on the canvas. "I think his use of color is fantastic," Gagné noted. Philadelphia-based artist Libby Rosa swathes her large-scale canvas in rich blues for the backdrop of her enchanting Sisters and switches to a softer, cooler shade for Waterfall Mouth.
Anna Ortiz’s "sociopsychological landscapes" feature enigmatic figures in surreal scenes executed in stunning colors. Johnny Thornton washes out colors and details by painting over the backgrounds of found images in white, ingeniously re-contextualizing the scenes and imbuing a sense of uncertainty and mystery.
Johnny Thornton, George Gave Me A Painting He Found, 2019
Paul Gagner, Home Renovations, 2019 (left); Andrew Smenos' The Rules Don't Apply, 2019 (top, left), Rising Tides... et cetera et cetera, 2019 (top, right), I Think the Neighbors Are Having A Barbecue, 2019 and The Walls Are Paper Thin, I Can Hear The Neighbors Screaming, 2019 (bottom, left), Looks Good Going Down, 2019 (bottom, center), and The Ferry Will Be Delayed, 2019 (bottom, right).
Andrew Smenos’ paintings of a melting traffic cone and sinking life jacket, "things that should help but do nothing," as Gagné describes them, bring humor to Fresh Paint, as do Paul Gagner’s self-deprecating Home Renovations and the smoke-enshrouded figure in Sir-Vape-A-Lot.
Dale Williams’ Osip Mandelstam, from his Profiles for Democracy series, pays homage to the Russian poet persecuted for his anti-Stalinist views. An online exhibit of Williams’ paintings is also currently on view at Gagné Contemporary. "They’re quite dark, but they’re like dark jewels," Gagné said of the works.
John Gagné at Art of Our Century where Fresh Paint is on view through March 22. Libby Rosa's Sisters, 2019, is on the left.
Starting next week, each artist in Fresh Paint will be featured in a brief conversation with Gagné on InstagramTV. The 18 clips will show the artists discussing her/his work as well as the work of another artist in the exhibit. Follow @gagnecontemporary to watch.
Housed in a creative building shared by an independent book publisher, a recording studio, a computer club, and 137 Artists Collective, Art of Our Century debuted in January 2020. The gallery's name is a tribute to Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery on West 57th Street. Like that gallery, the Greenwich Village art space will exhibit new and emerging artists alongside more established names. Upcoming exhibits will showcase former Village Voice nightlife photographer Catherine McGann, transgender multimedia artist Uman, and hip hop photographer Ricky Powell.
Fresh Paint
Art of Our Century, 137 West 14th Street, 3rd Floor, Greenwich Village, NYC
Exhibition on view February 27 through March 22.
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