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Ana
Bianchi -
el
zool humano (human zoo),
drypoint / aquatint 26.25 x 18.75
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TABLA RASA GALLERY
presents
NOBIS SOLO
November 12, 2008 - January 31,
2009
Meet the Artists Reception:
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
5:30 - 8:30 pm
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NOBIS
SOLO is
an exhibition of
sculpture,
painting and
works on paper,
each work
complete unto
itself.
Entitled in
the Latin phrase
for "By
ourselves
alone," the
artworks that
were selected
emphasize
a unity of
concept and
process. Although
it can be said
of any work of
art that it must
stand on its
own, co-curators
Joseph and
Audrey Anastasi
feel there is an
ineffable
quality of
individuality
that is evident
in these
particular
pieces. "Each
artist in their
way,
demonstrates an
extraordinary
connection with
their medium and
a mastery of
technique,
where form,
content and
material are one." Oneness
is a spiritual
term referring
to the
'experience' of
the absence of
egoic identity
boundaries.
Among the
artists
exhibiting in NOBIS
SOLO
are
Amina Ahmed, Tom
Bennett, Ana
Bianchi,
Kathleen Hayek,
Janine Nichols,
Stephen Paul,
Robin Ross,
Linda Stein,
and
Joe Zuccarini.
Tabla
Rasa Gallery
is FREE and open
to the public.
There will be an
artists’
reception
on Wednesday,
November
12, from 5:30
until 8:30 pm. NOBIS
SOLO
remains on
view through January
31, 2009.
General gallery
hours are noon
until 5 pm on
Thursday, Friday
and Saturday.
Call
718.833.9100
for holiday
season &
schedule
updates. .
The gallery is
located at 224
48th Street,
between 2nd and
3rd Avenues in
SPArC (Sunset
Park Artists'
Community). From
Manhattan, "D"
or "N" train to
36 Street in
Brooklyn, cross
platform, and
take "R" train
one stop to 45th
Street. Street
parking is
available.
About the
artists…
Organic biomorphic
forms; trees, weeds
and roots are
continual themes in
the work of
Amina Ahmed,
who received her MA
at Royal College of
Art in London.
She specialized in
visual Islamic and
traditional arts and
was awarded the
Barakat trust Prize.
Her drawings have
vitality and
poetry. They
are built with a
dense repetition of
stroke and a
concentrated
gesture. She says,
"The drawings are
whatever one wants
them to be, Root
,Weed or a woman
tangled in her
unwanted hair. The
roots evoke the
ancient voice. I am
beholden to Nature,
how it is realized,
revealed, unknown
and sometimes hidden
within and without
us.”
For
Tom Bennett,
a sense of activity
and movement within
his paintings and
monotypes is
essential. "The
monotype lends
itself to
spontaneity and to
an intuitive
approach in art
making." Influenced
by Bacon, De Kooning,
and Auerbach, and
with a mastery of
reductive painting
technique, his figures
live in an ambiguous
narrative speaking
to the subconscious.
Ana Bianchi
is a maker of
characters: their
portraits, their
close-ups, and
props, and their
interactions with
others. Born in
Mexico, her art has
a strong surreal
component. She
creates a personal
mythology inspired
in vivid saga-like
dreams, history and
flashing glimpses of
unique objects and
people she may have
encountered in
everyday life and in
her travels. Her
etchings reveal
technical mastery,
precise, clean
drawing and
classical balance of
line silhouettes
combined with
volumetric shadowing
and texture.
Kathleen
Hayek
is motivated and
inspired by the
power of life to
destroy and create
itself endlessly. In
most of her work,
she is dialoguing
with this
fracturing,
displacing, churning
cycle—devastation to
re-creation—of
natural life force,
attempting to find
the beauty in
destruction as well
as creation. A
native of Louisiana
and Mississippi,
her landscapes of
memory and dreams
are inspired by long
drives on open road,
along rolling
terrain in all
seasons. She uses
symbolic markings of
trees and horizon
line, scraped into
printing plates,
building the
landscape with
layers of thin
transparent colored
papers of delicate
texture and colored
inks melded in the
"chine collé"
printmaking process.
These are simple
direct creations,
done with utter
spontaneity, joy and
love of natural
forms and color
harmonies.
Collagist
Janine Nichols
succumbed to
scissor-happiness
decades ago; lately,
her works on paper
consist of layered
image transfers
(made with various
sticky tapes, soaked
in water, then
"aged" with wire-
and
toothbrushes)
conjuring narrative,
non-ironic scenes
outside of time.
Individual images
were mostly found in
distressed,
discarded books –
museum catalogs, a
poetry anthology;
she also mines the
Harper's Picture
Archive. Nichols'
pictures always
reward a closer
look: There's a
cowboy astride a
swayback horse
looking back at the
giant "Epping Moon"
but one must
let their eyes
adjust to the night
to see him.
With his latest
work
Stephen Paul
has brought
together various
parts of his
past
experiences-his
years in the
mountains of the
Southwest where
he developed a
love of painting
landscapes, his
work as a
contractor where
he developed a
love of the
tools of
demolition, and
his life in
painting. In
this series he
explores the
relationship
between
destruction and
creativity. He
applies layers
of paint and
canvas then cuts
back into the
painting with a
hand-held
grinder. The
abrasion exposes
various layers
of color and
pattern from the
different
periods of the
painting. Not
always
predictable, the
results,
considering the
violent nature
of the tool, can
be quite subtle.
The
hauntingly beautiful
paintings by
Robin Ross
encapsulate the
mystery of life. At
once abstract and
representational,
her seductive paint
surfaces
alternatively reveal
and obscure figures
and parts of
figures, hovering
between the
spiritual and
physical
realms. They seem to
take in the entire
spectrum of
consciousness; a
transmigration from
soul to soul.
The concept of
protection has
permeated the
sculpture of
Linda Stein
for the last three
decades, evolving
from her abstract
Excavations
and Blades
series (1980's -
1990's) to the
current Knights,
that began to
consume her
after the evacuation
by the police on
9/11. In this
series she scrambles
expectations of
gender and power,
blending female
torsos into the mix
of heroic symbols
and archetypes. Her
sculpture references
three icons from
popular culture and
religion: Wonder
Woman from World War
II comics—a
defending warrior
who never killed in
her efforts for
justice; Princess
Mononoke, from the
popular anime
movie—who
inspires with her
quest to save the
environment; and
Kannon, the
androgynous
Pan-Asian deity—who
represents
compassion and
protection.
Inspired by
Michelangelo,
Rodin, Munch,
and referencing
both eastern and
western
mythologies,
Joseph
Zuccarini
arranges found
and fabricated
objects, rusted
steel, broken
glass, aged
fabric,
water, and
transforms them
into meditative,
ritualistic
sculpture. His
rich palette of
brown, orange
rust, pale
yellow and
black, conjure
the earthly
elements,
mortality,
deterioration,
and the passage
of time.
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To list an upcoming event please contact
joyce@blacktiemagazine.com
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