Series
September 21 – November 15, 2022
Juried by Casey Lesser
Curatorial Statement
Even though they’re ubiquitous, we don’t really talk about series. It’s become a given that upon stepping into an artist’s solo show at a gallery or museum, we’re presented with a series, or several of them. At an art fair, collectors may well pore over several works in an artist’s new series, deliberating over which one to take home.
A series can be a conceptual device to see stories unfold, time elapse, or materials transform; it can be a commercial tool for selling out a show. For artists, a series can be a focused way to structure one’s practice or ruminate on a specific idea; for viewers, it’s an accessible means through which to grasp onto and delve into an artist’s work. In many ways, the contemporary art world thrives on series.
“For a series to work, you need to find a subject you are passionate about that is both open to variation and yet specific at the same time,” writes the artist and professor Clara Lieu. “A successful series should allow each individual work to be able to stand on its own, yet simultaneously relate to the rest of the other works in some manner.” Such is the case with the works in this show—a series of series.
Ranging from figurative paintings to beaded textiles to biomorphic abstraction, the featured 32 featured artists—each represented by three artworks—manifest the power of the series, showing what can be conveyed through a body of work, rather than just one.
The show is organized into five sections, each one bringing together small groups of artist that share in common conceptual frameworks or approaches to their subject matter:
“Home” features the work of four artists—Alexandra Beaumont, Lu Wang, Nancy Tompkins, Steven Duede—who present series that unfold personal history, identity, and in some cases, literal notions of the home to the foreground of their work.
“Landscapes, Interior & Exterior” brings together the work of five artists—Anita Bracalente, Bonnie Bishop, Katherine Patterson, Timothy Bergeron, and Weihui Lu—who present literal and figurative landscapes that address the wonders of the natural world as much as its mysteries, its destruction, and the way it connects to and reflects the human psyche.
“Pattern, Repetition, & Reinvention” shows a compelling range of ways that artists—Annie May Johnston, Brenton Good, Christopher Squier, Donald Truss, Julie Lee Abraham, Mahsa R Fard, Sara Tack, Trine Bumiller—engage in acts of repetition, be that through creating new patterns of meaning or re-envisioning an existing work.
In “Seeing the Familiar Anew,” the featured artists— Anthony Bockheim, Christopher Brown, Elizabeth (Lybi) Cucurullo, Janet Stafford, Karen Khan, Mary Ahern, Nicole James, Whitney Blue—take elements of the everyday, from still life arrangements to bolo ties to photographs of suburbia, and present them in a new light, leading us to question, or find new appreciation for, the things we take for granted.
Finally, “The Body” offers artists’—Amy Chasse, Christine Di Staola, Diane Novetsky, Ruth Shafer, Shushanik Karapetyan, Tulia Kelleher-Day—fresh visions of the human form, from sumptuous figurative paintings to abstract interpretations of torsos and breasts.
Taken together, the works on view offer glimpses into some of the most salient preoccupations, impulses, and passions of artists working today—made all the more potent given the presence of series.
Home
Featuring Alexandra Beaumont, Lu Wang, Nancy Tompkins, and Steven Duede
The artists in this section use their series to tease out interpretations of home. These works range from the personal, seen in Alexandra Beaumont’s textile and embroidered works that reflect on the ironwork of her family home and traditional Jamaican madras cloth; to the universal, as in Steven Duede’s photographs of tiny model houses that toy with the notion of what makes a house a home. Meanwhile Lu Wang reflects on what it means to be decontextualized from one’s home, having grown up in China and now living in the U.S; and Nancy Tompkins offers a series of melancholy self-portraits that foreground forlorn homes, making herself hardly discernible.
Landscapes, Interior & Exterior
Featuring Anita Bracalente, Bonnie Bishop, Katherine Patterson, Timothy Bergeron, and Weihui Lu
This grouping of artists shows the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world, from from Weihui Lu’s series "Red Sun, Raw Earth," which, in the artist’s words, “explores themes of climate change, cultural identity and mental health through interior landscapes,” to Katherine Patterson’s ethereal watercolors of Lake George, which convey the solace and calm we long for in nature. The section is perhaps best encapsulated by the work of Timothy Bergeron, a series of paintings of a log in forest over time—“a study that investigates,” Bergeron writes, “how natural moments reflect the cycle of mental stability and instability of a person's life.”
Weihui Lu
Red Sun (Yearning for a home that doesn't exist)
Acrylic on canvas
78" x 80" x .5"
$1,400.00
Pattern, Repetition, & Reinvention
Featuring Annie May Johnston, Brenton Good, Zenobia Lakdawalla, Katerina Ganchak, Christopher Squier, Donald Truss, Julie Lee Abraham, Mahsa R Fard, Sara Tack, and Trine Bumiller
Series are prime vehicles for experimenting with process and repetition, which often leads to pattern. Though far from simple repeated shapes and forms, the series here show that recreating shapes and forms can lead to deeply meditative compositions and conceptually compelling projects. Take for example the work of Sara Tack, who cleverly uses typography to create a pattern that deconstructs preconceptions of pattern-making and its associations with gender and class; and Christopher Squier who recreates Berenice Abbott’s scientific photographs of rippling water and light through incredibly exacting graphite drawings.
Zenobia Lakdawalla
Aftermatter 1 (Print Series)
Relief print on gampi, paper, glue, relief ink
30” x 22”
$1200.00
Trine Bumiller
Tonto National Monument
Oil on wood
8" x 10"
$500.00
Seeing the Familiar Anew
Featuring Anthony Bockheim, Christopher Brown, Elizabeth (Lybi) Cucurullo, Janet Stafford, Karen Khan, Mary Ahern, Nicole James, Whitney Blue
Far from simple still lifes and documentary photography, these conceptually rich works draw on the everyday and twist it into something fresh. Janet Stafford slices up the everyday into storyboard-like paintings that break down and re-envision elements and processes of the natural world. And Nicole James presents a series of still lifes that offer a lush, overhead perspective on a chaotic melange of objects, from ripe fruits to Covid tests, putting an enticing spin on the mundane.
The Body
Featuring Amy Chasse, Christine Di Staola, Diane Novetsky, Ruth Shafer, Shushanik Karapetyan, Tulia Kelleher-Day
Beyond expected figurative paintings, these studies of the body delve into biological processes, the psyche, and the sculptural nature of the human form. This multifaceted section spans Ruth Shafer’s playful, upholstered breasts; Shushanik Karapetyan’s sleek, colorful visions of women’s health and pregnancy; and Amy Chasse’s whimsical interpretations of a jaunty cowboy.
Shushanik Karapetyan
Ovo
Acrylic on Canvas
36" x 24" x .75"
$3,710.00
Tulia Kelleher-Day
Katrina, Katrina, Katrina (1/3)
Pastel on Paper
8" x 8"
$300.00
Tulia Kelleher-Day
Katrina, Katrina, Katrina (1/3)
Pastel on Paper
8" x 8"
$300.00
Tulia Kelleher-Day
Katrina, Katrina, Katrina (1/3)
Pastel on Paper
8" x 8"
$300.00