Rhombus Space Presents "Elusive Abstraction" featuring work by Peter Demos, Katherine Keltner, Alexandra Posen, and Albert Weaver

Alexandra Posen, Chutes de Khone, Silk chiffon, thread, lead, and wood, 36 x 66”, 2012

Rhombus Space is pleased to present Elusive Abstraction, an exhibition featuring artwork by Peter Demos, Katherine Keltner, Alexandra Posen, and Albert Weaver. 

Curated by Katerina Lanfranco

Exhibition Dates: May 2 – May 25, 2014.  Reception: Friday, May 2, 6-9 PM. 

Elusive Abstraction is an exhibition of artwork that uses spare visual languages and encourages a visual experience that is fluid and rests on the periphery of rigid formal abstraction. Each artist in the show creates their unique visual language that evolves from a deep commitment to their artistic process, as well as an investigation into the subtle formal relations between mark, paint, and surface in their work. Peter Demos’ hard-edge black on black paintings wrestle with a spatial illusion that fluctuates between images and objects. Katherine Keltner explores repetition and universality, oscillating between using digital and analog tools to construct abstract images. Her works involve the ritual of tracing and embrace blurred distinctions of subject and other. Alexandra Posen’s use of luscious materials like wax and chiffon silk evoke a sensual corporeality. She employs signature couture fashion techniques to form elegant lines and gestures in her translucent silk works creating presence and absence. Albert Sunjoon Weaver’s paintings and drawings are a meditation on water, waves, surfing, and satellite imaging of ocean tide patterns. His surfaces are woven together in repeated gestures in a quest to extrapolate the essence of a distilled mark within these layers of oceanic contemplation.

The four artists presented in Elusive Abstraction suggest new and exciting territory for contemporary abstraction. The overriding compositional approaches of these works make their description slippery and harder to grasp. While the prevailing tone of this show is both subdued and understated, there is a distinct boldness in how inventive and pioneering the formal logic and compositional rules that these four artists work with. As a result, a visual ambience is created by all of the works in this show as they move between an analytical logical construct and the viewer’s aesthetic experience. 

Peter Demos lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He earned his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, and MFA (Tony Smith Award) from Hunter College. In 2011, Demos was awarded a Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation residency. His work has been exhibited at Mixed Greens, Nathan Bernstein and Co. Ltd., Leo Koenig Inc., Deitch Projects, Cirrus Gallery, Dorsch Gallery, The Hole and The Journal Gallery. Upcoming: solo exhibitions at David Richard Gallery and Restoration Hardware Contemporary Art; and group exhibitions at Charles Banks Gallery in NY, and Martin Asbæk Gallery in Copenhagen. His work has been reviewed in The Last Magazine, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, & Refinery 29.

Peter Demos, Untitled. Acrylic on dyed canvas 60 x 30", 2014.

Katherine Keltner is a New York based artist. Keltner earned her MFA (Distinction) from American University and AB (High Honors) from Dartmouth College. Her work has been exhibited at The American University Museum / Katzen Arts Center, Muriel Guepin Gallery, Arts@Renaissance, Jamaica Center for the Arts, Max Protetch Gallery, and Creative Time. Keltner is the recipient of the Arteles Center Fellowship, the Vermont Studio Center Grant and was a finalist for the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Prize. Her work has been reviewed in L Magazine, ARTINFO, and the Village Voice. Recently, Keltner presented her paper “Multiplicities from Motherhood” at the 2013 NWSA Conference.

Katherine Keltner, First it was Her. Archival inkjet print on canvas with mixed media, 40 x 40", 2012.

Alexandra Posen is a graduate of Brown University and L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She studied physical & visual theater with an emphasis on mask making and puppetry, which lead to her performance works in the late 90’s. In 2000 she began her wax drawing series FIELDS, and soon after co-founded Zac Posen, where as Creative Director she worked for nearly a decade to establish the label as a global brand.  Alexandra Posen’s extensive knowledge of couture fabric and technique has translated into a unique formal language in her abstract paintings. Posen’s work has been exhibited at Lynch Tham, NYCAMS, The Watermill Center, and reviewed in Bullett Magazine. 

Alexandra Posen, Mad Vallis. Chiffon silk, ink, pins and wood, 12 x 12”, 2014.

Albert Sunjoon Weaver was born in Southern California. He received a BA in studio art from the University of California, Santa Cruz and earned his Masters of Fine Arts in painting from American University in Washington DC. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at Zg Gallery in Chicago, Herrett Center for the Visual Arts in Twin Falls, Jamaica Center for the Arts in New York, Trebisonda Gallery in Perugia, Italy and Hiromart Gallery in Japan. He is the recipient of the Stanley G. Wolpoff Drawing Award. Weaver’s work has been reviewed in Times-News and The Chicago Sun Times. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. 

Albert Weaver, Untitled. Oil on panel, 16 x 16", 2013.

"Thought Bubbles": Exhibition Installation Photos - Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová.

Rhombus Space Presents: "Thought Bubbles" w/ Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová.

      

   “July” from The Months series by Archie Rand 2011. Acrylic, enamel, chalk, charcoal, appliqué on fabric, 26 x 70”

Rhombus Space is pleased to present Thought Bubbles, an exhibition featuring artwork by Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová.

Curated by Katerina Lanfranco

Exhibition Dates: March 28 – April 27, 2014.  Reception: Friday, April 4, 6-9 PM.

Thought Bubbles, the upcoming show at Rhombus Space, is an artistic dialogue between 4 visual artists who use graphic conventions and formal devices from comics and cartoons in their art. The work in Thought Bubbles makes explicit the artist’s subjective and critical thought processes, as well as narrative constructions through forms that externalize the interior, to produce multiple perspectives. Enrique Chagoya is both artist and cultural historian; he makes pictorial records of recent and historical events using humor and appropriated political, historical, and pop culture icons turned into visual narratives creating a “reverse anthropology' of American and Western culture. Don Fritz’s work explores cultural and gender identities, as well Pan-Pacific fantasies of sexuality and power, using childhood imagery and toys of 1950s, along with Japanese, Mexican and U.S. cultural signifiers. Archie Rand combines secular and sacred symbolism in his work; filtering cross-cultural knowledge with a personal perspective that results in paintings composed of interwoven formal and narrative layers. Petra Gupta Valentová’s work examines questions of identity, memory, and childhood experiences by combining traditional craft styles from India with post-Modern Western art to create contemporary graphic stories. Together, Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová borrow from the form and concept of the pop culture tradition of comic and cartoon arts in order to highlight social commentary in their artwork and to challenge fine art conventions by bridging the gap between high art and popular culture through their creative process.

Enrique Chagoya. Hand of Power. 
Color lithograph, woodcut on paper, ed. 30 25 x 37 inches.

Enrique Chagoya was born in Mexico City and studied economics at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico before moving to the U.S. to earn his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a Professor of Art at Stanford University. Chagoya’s work is shown internationally and is in several collections including: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, De Young Museum, LA County Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art, Des Moines Art Center, New York Public Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Don Fritz. Ground Zero. Mixed media on paper, 36 x 24 inches

Don Fritz received his BFA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his MFA from the University of California, Davis. Fritz is currently an Associate Professor at Santa Clara University in California, and was a featured instructor at the Anderson Ranch Art Center and the Split Rock Arts Program. He is the recipient of a 2013 Artist Laureate Award given by the Silicon Valley Arts Council, and an awardee of a Japanese Cultural Exchange travel grant, and two Pollock Krasner Artist’s Grants. Fritz exhibits internationally with work in collections including: Otaru Museum in Hokkaido Japan, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Microsoft Corporation in Washington.

Archie Rand. (March) from "The Months". Mixed media on fabric, 26 x 70 inches

Archie Rand was born in Brooklyn, New York. Rand is currently the Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College. He is the recipient of several awards including the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Rand has had more than one hundred solo shows and is exhibited internationally. His work is in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Baltimore Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Petra Gupta Valentová. Untitled (Hot Summer) from the "Stories from India" series. 

Wood block printing on silk, 44 x 198 Inches

Petra Gupta Valentová was born in Pardubice, Czech Republic. She lives and works in New York City and conducts artistic research in Finland, India and Czech Republic. Petra graduated from the master’s degree program at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic and earned her MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York. Valentová was the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship for Sculpture. Jitro Publishing House published her book “Searching for a Sámi”. She exhibits her work internationally in the U.S., Israel, Czech Republic, India and upcoming in Brazil. Valentová’s work is in permanent collections including: Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation, Kemi Museum in Finland, and Czech National Gallery.