Modernism is pleased to present a selection of 11 paintings by contemporary Modernism artists addressing a range of ideas, all expressed with an abstract vocabulary.
The exhibition includes work from living artists, both new and familiar, ranging from long standing cornerstones of the gallery’s programming, like James Hayward and Naomie Kremer whose history with Modernism harks back to before the turn of the millennium, to very recent additions to the roster such as Sameh Khalatbari and Victor Reyes. Though connected by the loose thread of abstraction, the works range from the formal abstraction of Edith Baumann to the lyrical abstraction of Macha Poynder. In the exhibition, white monochrome paintings are juxtaposed with compositions of explosive color. Monumental paintings that tower over and envelop the viewer neighbor small works that invite the viewer in for closer examination.
The exhibition’s contrasts are not only aesthetic, but conceptual as well. Works, like those of Charles Arnoldi, focus on iterative visual qualities and the correlative experience of form and color, while others symbolize nonfigurative narratives. Some narratives are political such as Sameh Khalatbari’s 1401 N/m2 Resistance – No.1 Resistance, a large-scale mixed media painting created in response to the death of Mahsa Amini and the ongoing conditions of gender apartheid in Iran. In this work, bands of bound cord are restrained and reshaped by the physical tension of opposing cords, symbolic of the Iranian women Khalatbari represents in her work.
Other narratives are socio-anthropological like Victor Reyes’s enormous diptych Silent Hart of the Earth which recalls the San Francisco of decades past and tells the story of its jarring convergence with the ever-changing city of present day. The layered forms, created by a meticulous sequence of screens and molds, echo the multi-layered personality of the place by which it was inspired.The abstraction of place and memory does not end with Reyes. Naomie Kremer translates personal experiences and observations of nature, into a visual language that makes the real unrecognizable, echoing the processes of Ellsworth Kelly and Brice Marden.
Like Naomie Kremer, Edith Baumann’s paintings also are personal, though they are not self-referential. Much like Mark Rothko, Baumann utilizes economy of means in her zen-minded minimalist paintings, beckoning the viewer not to ponder the artist, but the self.
In contrast to the simplicity of Baumann’s formal abstraction, Hayward’s topographically rich gestural impasto paintings embrace the lyrical abstraction of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but with the austerity of ivory hues.
The inclusion of such diverse work presents a brief continuum of Modernism’s history in presenting the abstract. From Modernism’s conception and very first exhibition, abstraction has served as a primary pillar of the gallery programming. Whether formal or lyrical, vibrant or muted, large or small, Modernism is proud to celebrate the nonobjective in all its variety.
