Justine Hill. They Just Behave Differently

About

That exhibition theorized that she is part of a distinct contemporary moment by oscillating between modern and postmodern tendencies- expressing both humor and seriousness, enthusiasm and irony, play and discipline.

Justine Hill makes abstract paintings using elemental marks and shapes that are distinguished by color, value, and opacity. Her process is to add layers, alluding both to digital painting tools and to collage. Hill makes traditional rectangular paintings and shaped canvases she calls “Cut Outs,” which are reminiscent of Elizabeth Murray, Frank Stella, and a heterogeneous set of contemporaries. The Cut Outs are first constructed in wood that Hill cuts down into various shapes and covers with canvas. She then paints the forms on the canvas while navigating their relationship to the bounding shape, its shadows, and its space in the real world. The artist personifies the Cut Outs, even more so than the rectangular paintings. Their animus led her to respond to the question of what distinguishes them from her rectangular paintings by saying, “They just behave differently.”