Jill Newhouse Displays Works Of Eight Artists Working On Paper

Hidden Web, by John Gibson

New York City is the place where every artist can find their place and thus becomes able to transmit their vision to the viewer. Therefore, curator at Jill Newhouse, Karen Wilkin, has started an exhibition yesterday, September 21, that will run through October 23, 2010 and that brings together the works of eight artists whose main medium is paper.

As she stated, the works of the artists have nothing in common but the use of paper. In rest, their work range from abstractions to imagery, all painting in such a way as to bring the visitor a sense of dreaming and intimacy. For all eight artists, the physical properties of objects – touch, density, surface, scale – are also means of expression. The eight artists are all contemporary painters who find their inspiration in the world around them, in objects or nature.

John Gibson paints what it seems to be  simple depictions of spherical shapes within space, in endless variation.  Gibson plays with space, form, and color, in order to  propose classical problems and opportunities of figure and ground, the turning of form into space, and the balance of color.

Wendy Mark is known for her monotypes. She has largely collaborated with poets and writers for different exhibitions where she displayed, herself being a writer whose work has been found in different museums around America.

Lino Mannocci creates imaginary scenes with a mythic and oneiric subject. His use of oil paint is limited, however his works feature other media that include monotype and the treated postcard. Mannocci often paints mythical and religious figures like Ganymede or the archangel Gabriel, in order to bring on paper lost stories.

Graham Nickson is a painter and teacher with many showcases in different museums and galleries all over US, whose work relies on observations of nature and which contributed to the development of contemporary figurative painting.

Enrico Riley is a painter whose work revolves around maps of star constellations, poetry, and improvisational music. At the same time, his paintings make viewers wonder whether rationality, as represented by pattern or methodical process, can be empathetic; or whether  the visionary or intuitive can be rational.

Kikuo Saito integrates the painterly with the calligraphic. In his works, he includes stenciled letters that give the opportunity of an alternative way of seeing or reading and which adds structure to the abstract strokes.

Fulvio Testa creates watercolor landscapes from imagination of the Italian countryside. They lack presence and specificity, in the sense that one cannot say exactly where the landscape was painted. In this way, his work is a refuge for his own personality.

Louisa Waber applies watercolor and drawn lines to pieces of paper, creating touchingly intimate expressions of her  relationship to color and form. She believes that the work of art needs to breathe in order to be able to interact with both the artists and the viewer to enhance the exact message to be communicated.

All these artists bring together their skill, color and imagery, in a palette of feelings and visions. Their work is diverse and at times similar, in the sense that the messages transmitted are to some extent the same: art breathes through every brush stroke that the artist is using in the process of creation.