| “Color is an unfixed property that is influenced by light, context, and the perception of the beholder. The notion that color is something that cannot be proven, given the relativity of its shifting nature, is fascinating. Albers made color live; through simplistic abstractions he impressed upon the viewer the action of color, the vibrations and manifestations of color fields that are activated by a kind of meditative, pointed focus. If color is impacted by context and is itself active, how does it exist as an object, a thing? The Thingness of Color is a bright, playful investigation of the object-hood of color. Each of the artists invited to participate in the exhibition address color as a physical entity, whether literally shaping space with color, or working with color as shape. |  |
15 Rivington Street
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm; Sunday 12n – 6pm through May 8, 2011
“Color is an unfixed property that is influenced by light, context, and the perception of the beholder. The notion that color is something that cannot be proven, given the relativity of its shifting nature, is fascinating. Albers made color live; through simplistic abstractions he impressed upon the viewer the action of color, the vibrations and manifestations of color fields that are activated by a kind of meditative, pointed focus. If color is impacted by context and is itself active, how does it exist as an object, a thing? The Thingness of Color is a bright, playful investigation of the object-hood of color. Each of the artists invited to participate in the exhibition address color as a physical entity, whether literally shaping space with color, or working with color as shape.
Sarah Cain is presenting large-scale works on paper that are populated by color blocks, stripes, and shapes that are defined by color and hold the same presence and boundaries as objects incorporated into the compositions. Franklin Evans is including an installation of colored strips that will visually splice and literally segment a portion of the gallery. Matthew Rich is presenting frameless works of paper, each forming a cohesive yet amorphous abstract shape that has been individuated by color and aligned at the seems. Cordy Ryman is presenting stacked wood objects that have been swathed in color and are both contingent upon and reshaping architectural space.”
The Inner exhibition, “That Which Remains…,” will present pieces in a variety of media by Sheila Gallagher.
“Gallagher has selected objects and imagery excavated from her own personal and familial history, a plastic napkin holder, old Lego, a 19th century drawing of Hart’s Island by an unknown artist, and a postcard from the 1972 Munich Olympics to serve as the literal, visual, and conceptual content of her show. Reflective of her experience of spending the last ten years researching and archiving a family collection of 650 historically significant Civil War drawings that had all but been forgotten, That which remains… asks questions about object survival and inter-object communication. Meaningless and meaningful, innocuous and loaded, the resonance of these collected objects exists in the space between their personal and cultural histories, and in the shift from their intended meaning or function to a new symbology. Gallagher is struck by how these objects have persisted in actuality (they haven’t been tossed) and in a collective mind-space. Gallagher describes her work as ‘the physical manifestation of associations’ revealing hidden histories and relationships.”
