Buster Levi Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibitionat 121 Main Street in Cold Spring New York. The exhibition will run from August 4 through September 2, 2017. The opening for the show will be on Friday August 4, 2017 from 6-8pm.
This show will feature a guest artist Nancy Steinson who will be exhibiting four sculptures. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Steinson came to New York to work as assistant to the student advisor at International House. She received a B.A. Degree in political science at the University of Louisville. Dedicated to human rights issues as a Southerner, but equally seduced by the arts, Steinson studied sculpture under Peter Agostini at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Her early work was representational, but she became an abstractionist under the influence of Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. Small ovular and curvilinear forms gave way to more liberating, purely geometric structures that were free to move out of a central core in order to express movement, direction, space and scale. Steinson works almost exclusively, except in her works on paper, with curved planar forms and linear straight edges, which suggest a more organic approach to form as opposed to the industrial purity of early minimalism. Steinson’s materials are for the most part welded steel and bronze.
Gallery artists included in the show are Jenne M. Currie, Eric Erickson,Bill Kooistra,Martee Levi and Barbara Smith Gioia. All of the work in the show bears either a geometric or minimal foundation. Barbara Smith Gioia’s mixed media collage combines several printmaking techniques used as collage papers with areas of pure painting. The composition is built off of a grid structure wherein the process is fluid and spontaneous relying on an improvisational compositional approach that works ‘with’ and ‘against’ the grid to bring disparate elements into harmony. Martee Levi also works with collage, though in her case separate geometric shapes of painted canvas are combined and juxtaposed to create her compositions. Rather than working off a grid Levi’s work tends to be rhythmic related to her interest in dance. Jenne M. Currie’s work at first glance looks similar to Smith Gioia’s. However, her compositional approach is different. Though geometric, they are not based on a grid, but rather are a combination of shapes, colors and energized textures involved in a push/pull to create dynamic relationships. The works appear raw as wildly different areas battle for prominence.
Eric Erickson and Bill Kooistra’s work, though sharing a geometric base are more minimal in their approach. Erickson’s work is almost anti-compositional. There appears to be no underlying structure holding it together. Two rectangular ochre shapes based on planks of wood line up in the corners along the top of the painting. The surface of the painting is heavily worked, with layers of paint and sanding. Ghosts of other forms, Erickson’s shapes are clearly forms; appear toward the lower center and toward the right edge of the painting. Typical of his work, Erickson pushes the limits of composition and imagery to find out what the possibilities are. Kooistra’s painting is a diptych of two separate canvas’ dealing with two different types of surface. The top is thinner, though not stained or glazed and the lower canvas is heavier with the build up brushwork clearly evident. The color is nearly monochromatic which helps force the comparison of the handling of paint.
Buster Levi Gallery is open Friday through Sunday from 12-6 pm.
