Albada Jelgersma Gallery proudly presents its inaugural exhibition NEW YORK, NEW WORK with six New York based artists: Patrick Brennan, Elise Ferguson, Joseph Hart, Karen Lee Williams, Erin O’Keefe and Ryan Wallace.
Opening reception: Saturday, September 2 from 5-8 pm.
ALBADA JELGERSMA is a new gallery located in Amsterdam that aspires to bring foreign artists to the Dutch capital, and it wants to contribute to its lively artistic climate by organizing events such as artist talks, discussions and screenings. With this exhibition it connects the New York art world with the Dutch tradition of painting. New York has been featured as the center of the art world since the 1940s and 50s with the Abstract Expressionists. The emphasis on the medium of painting is still very much present in New York today. The artworks in this exhibition show how versatile this medium is. These American artists are keen to show their work in Amsterdam because it stands for a rich painterly tradition as can be witnessed in its history and museums.
About the artists
Patrick Brennan (1975) works with his environment. This can be the city (New York) or the mountains and woods upstate (where the artist works as well). There is a certain discomfort and uneasiness in his paintings; they need serious attention. Each painting is an invitation to the viewer to connect with the experience of the painter.
Elise Ferguson (1964) makes paintings from plaster on mdf panel. She works with mathematical puzzles and geometric variations using patterns and color. She creates the patterns in Photoshop, after which she makes screen prints that she applies to the plaster. The works seem flawless but at a closer look one sees imperfections.
Joseph Hart (1976) makes paintings that incorporate impulsive mark making and careful organization. By combining painting, drawing and assemblage, his work is built up and impulsively edited until a dynamic composition begins to emerge. Bold forms are balanced by wayward gestures, while vibrant colors are checked by swaths of black and white. .
Karen Lee Williams (1980) works mostly in sculpture and photography to create a space in which logic and intuition play with each other. Her work challenges conventional assumptions about natural phenomena and materiality and it makes us aware of the absurdity of trying to reconcile reason with gut feeling.
Erin O’Keefe (1962) is informed by the disciplines of architecture and photography in her practice. Her work consists of photographs of tabletop still life arrangements that she constructs in her studio. Her images exploit the layer of distortion and misapprehension introduced by the camera as it translates three-dimensional form and space into two-dimensional image.
Ryan Wallace (1977) recycles and deconstructs studio materials and paintings to build his works, in a continuous generative cycle. His paintings are composed with the worn surfaces of vinyl screens, tarps, metallic tape, tiles, rubber and torn pieces of canvas. The use of reflective materials causes visual changes to the paintings depending on their light source.
