Beyond the Surface

About

Curated by Paul Efstathiou, Director of Contemporary Art, Beyond the Surface highlights these five artists’ attention to the physicality of technique and handling of surfaces, while revealing underlying paradoxes that touch on shared themes such as control and chance, reality and illusion, as well as transience and permanence. The exhibition will open in our Southport, CT location (330 Pequot Avenue) on March 5 and will be on view through April 30. An opening reception will take place on March 5 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. with several of the artists in attendance. 

“Beyond the Surface assembles five contemporary practitioners from New York who together form a complementary yet multidimensional collection of abstract and representational compositions. Shared in their innovative treatments of their surfaces and complex paradoxical themes, these exceptional works together create a unique interplay of energy,” said Paul Efstathiou.

Will Hutnick and Lizbeth Mitty overlap in their unique investigations and interpretations of illusionistic landscapes. Employing various mediums (acrylic, crayon, ink, watercolor, spray paint, and sand) and processes (printmaking, drawing, and painting), Hutnick’s topographic compositions embrace mismatched and dissonant segments of patterns, textures, and hues. The rhythmic interplay of his overlapping forms and patterns evokes an errant time continuum that is evolving and mutating. Patterns come together and fall apart while other segments visually move inwards and expand. His shapeshifting works are perpetual explorations that intentionally arouse intrigue and ambiguity. Similarly, textures and vivid patterns created with acrylic paint play a crucial part in Mitty’s lush visual compositions. The surfaces of her still lives within liquid landscapes dance with the varied applications of paint from impasto to glazing. Rooted in memories of the Italian landscapes, Mitty’s sublime paintings intend to provide an escape from the pandemic world by instilling grandeur, hope and optimism; however, never far away is the uneasiness of a fleeting romanticism.

Focusing more closely on the expressive potential of mark making to guide her narratives, Erika Ranee’s additive and subtractive process entails drawing, pouring, dripping, spraying with paint, recycled paint wash, oil stick, shellac, and objects, resulting in vibrations of color and energy. Similar to personal journals, her works record and preserve the daily sensory occurrences of her life from the beat and smells of the city streets, microscopic details of the natural world, and/or her studio music. A frenetic swirl of hues and materials undulates freely across the canvas, allowing her narratives to grow out of her process; however, her compositions are not complete visual runaways. Near the end of her process, she slows down to make deliberate additions and edits such as negative flat spaces that allow for pause and control. Her compositions are full of dichotomies. They are a dance between chance and deliberateness, as well as snapshots of her world challenging the ephemeral quality of the digital world.

Edward Holland and Emily Kiacz look toward the sky for inspiration. Holland combines oil paint, acrylic, colored pencil, graphite and collage to create striking compositions scaffold by the linear geometry of constellations in the Zodiac. Tensions abound as varied applications of materials and colors create dynamic forms and spaces while delicate lines subtly cut through the compositions, triggering provocative juxtapositions throughout. Conceptually, the Zodiac serves Holland as an ancient guide to understanding humanity as each constellation explores a specific myth. Kiacz coats multiple glazes of translucent acrylic paint to modified quatrefoil and daisy-shaped canvases, creating ethereal and precious sculptural forms reminiscent of the four-sided, luminous, stained glass windows seen in gothic architecture. Her layering of thin applications of colors in sweeping rhythmic forms, similar to imperfectly stacked colored lenses, generates secondary hues. This treatment culminates in fluid, atmospheric, and kaleidoscopic configurations that feel evanescent, recalling fleeting phenomena in nature like rainbows, sunrises and sunsets. Kiacz employs shaped canvases to accentuate her commitment to the objecthood of art and specifically her intent on making shaped color in space.

About Hollis Taggart

Founded in 1979, Hollis Taggart presents significant works of American art, showcasing the trajectory of American art movements from the Hudson River School to American Modernism and the Post-War and Contemporary eras. Its program is characterized by a deep commitment to scholarship and bringing to the fore the work of under-recognized artists. The gallery has sponsored several catalogue raisonné projects, most recently for the American Surrealist artist Kay Sage, and has been instrumental in advancing knowledge of such artists as Alfred Maurer, Arthur B. Carles, and more recently, Theodoros Stamos, Marjorie Strider, and Michael (Corinne) West. In the summer of 2019, the gallery announced the formal expansion of its primary market business and focus on the presentation of contemporary work. It continues to expand its roster of contemporary artists, focusing on emerging and mid-career talents. With more than 40 years of experience, Hollis Taggart is widely recognized by collectors and curators for its leadership, expertise, and openness, on matters of art history, and market trends and opportunities. The gallery’s flagship location is in Chelsea, and it also operates a space in Southport, Connecticut.

For more information, please contact: info@hollistaggart.com or (212) 628-4000.