Monday, June 2, 2014

Between Matter and Experience Show

Katherine Bradford

Today was a great day.  The group show Between Matter and Experience was installed.

Sarah McEneaney

Gallery curator John Thompson putting up the work (from left: Krista Profitt, Bonnie Levinthal, Me)

Lauren Garvey left, Eleanor Ray right

Betsey Batchelor

from left; Me, Sarah Gamble, Eleanor Ray

Bonnie Levinthal left, Me right
This show initially began as a conversation at my aunt's (Bonnie Levinthal) house.  A few painters were sitting around discussing painting (what's new haha), and what we feel is really important in painting to us.  It was just a big idea for a long time that morphed from one place to the next, as a sort of platform to get through the cold winter months, a reason to get together and talk.  

But eventually we decided to get organized and put something up that we could see in-person, together, and see what that sparked.  From there everything went really quickly and now the show is opening June 5th, from 3-5pm at the President's Gallery, Hamilton Hall, University of the Arts, Philadelphia.  
It continues through July 3rd.

Here is the statement:

This exhibition represents the work of nine contemporary painters. While the visual vocabularies are diverse, there exists a shared humanist perspective that suggests the way it feels to move through the world without feigned knowing or emotional distance, expressing an openness to sensation of both paint and subject.


The work reflects attention to the overlooked, the intimate, the awkward and imperfect, appreciates mystery, and possesses a curiosity for things hidden. In all the work, there is a suggestion of the existence of something not entirely present.


This "between" state takes the form of the tension between abstraction and representation, between image and the physical form of the paint, and where a quality is present that resists naming.

At the heart of this view, is the idea that this attention to humanness inspires a range of voices.


This show grew from a small, casual dialogue between a few of the painters in this show into a larger discussion on painting. The original conversations traced the threads of continuity that weave through the work of these artists from different cities and generations.


Partly facilitated by the personal relationships that connect them, or maybe as a result of seeing each other's work, but most likely due to something much more far-reaching and complex, these painters share an attitude on painting that manifests in quite different visual expressions. The decision for this particular grouping is to draw attention to how diverse that expression can be.


Participating Artists:


2 comments:

Christina said...

This is such an excellent show. I was lucky to see it while I was passing through town. Such a joyful exploration of color and materiality. Congrats!

Aubrey Levinthal said...

Thank you so much Christina! I really appreciate that, thanks for stopping through.

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