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Ogdoadic 3, 2005, Acrylic on canvas, 55 x 44 in / 137 cm x 112 cm
Exhibition
Regina Bogat: Ascension (2005-2008)
6 Nov 2019 – 21 Dec 2019
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 12:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 12:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 12:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 14:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 12:00 – 18:00
Address
- 33 Bleecker Street
- New York
New York - 10012
- United States
Zürcher Gallery NY presents their fifth solo exhibition of works by Regina Bogat (b. 1928) in New York. This exhibition centers on the artist’s “Star Series” of paintings made between 2005 and 2008. The “stars” fall into three categories: Ogdoadics, Heptadics, and Decagons.
About
The exhibition also features a continuous screening of Regina B (2017), a documentary portrait by Frances Barth chronicling Regina Bogat’s experiences in the downtown art scene of the 1950s and 60s. The film was an official selection at the Marfa Film Festival 2017 nominated for best International Short Documentary at the New Renaissance Amsterdam Festival 2018.
Zürcher Gallery has also published a catalog covering Bogat’s works from 2000-2010 to accompany this exhibition. Excerpt from Regina Bogat’s artist statement, “2000-2010: Recollection and Ascension” (published in the exhibition catalog):
"My studies of ancient spiritual symbols introduced me to different star forms as I was experimenting with various ways of painting and drawing. First I worked with simple five-pointed stars and then became fascinated by the variety of star shapes, each having significance and distinct ways to draw them. The Star Series (2005-2008) is comprised of three different star types: the decagon has ten rays, the ogdoadic has eight rays, and the heptadic has seven rays...
...There’s no linear perspective in the star paintings. Instead, layers of opaque and transparent paint contribute to the surface and depth. Employing a full range of color, I honed techniques I had developed in the 1990s. Stars are drawn on the canvas in ink. The basic ink drawing is often obscured and then revealed through spilling, rubbing, my own frottage, layering, pastel and brushstrokes. The spaces between the star shapes also become significant. The stars move in space, some more deeply than others. The paintings are capricious and take advantage of chance and random laying down of color.
The star paintings lend themselves to thoughts of cosmic explosions, space dust, black holes and the birth of galaxies. Astrophysics, outer space, has been an ongoing interest of mine. Indeed, my lifelong focus on art commenced in childhood the moment my WPA art teacher showed a reproduction of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) to my grade school class. This theme also appears in some of my earlier work: Aster (1967), Stardate (c. 1969), Constellation (1969) and Galaxy (1970). However, my focus then was on the use of unconventional materials rather than the star form."
Regina Bogat, 2019
