Connie Goldman: Genea & Mikey Kelly: Vibrate
October 5 – November 16, 2017
Artist Talk at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary Moderated by Rory Padeken, Associate Curator at San Jose Museum of Art? Thursday, October 5, 6-7:30pm
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 6-8pm
First Friday Reception: Friday, November 3, 6-8pm
Oakland, CA - Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to announce two concurrent solo exhibitions of works by Bay Area artists Connie Goldman and Mikey Kelly from October 6 to November 16, 2017. Paintings by these two Bay Area artists explore contemporary abstraction and color as well as motion, in both metaphorical or optical terms.
Connie Goldman’s new body of work entitled Genea, further explores the “tenuous equilibrium” in which human beings and everything in the universe exist. “Genea,” from the Greek, means “to become, to emerge, to transition from one point to another.” It suggests change and growth, which are inextricably linked.
Through a restrained formal language of color planes, angular shapes, and straight lines, Goldman’s oil paintings on dimensional panels express subtle shifts and implied movement, however glacial its pace. Shapes fold on themselves, lines dart through to connect discrete planes or segment monochromatic ones, surfaces are faceted, jutting forward and back. Colors are both in tension and in harmony with one
other at the same time.
These are slow paintings–slow in the making as well as in the viewing. A quick glance may register two planes when there is actually a single one in two tones. Something seen first as a shadow may reveal itself to be a recessed portion of the painted object. Surprising colors on the edges offer delightful moments of discovery. What may first seem simple and quiet becomes complex and energized, or vice versa. Even the experience of these works does not stay the same.
Mikey Kelly’s Vibrate highlights new work by Bay Area artist Mikey Kelly. Kelly’s recent acrylic paintings continue his interest in process-driven linear compositions that are optically charged. Reminiscent of woven textiles and Op Art by artists like Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gilbert Hsiao, and Susie Rosmarin, his dynamic fields of interference patterns come alive with a viewer’s interaction. This experiential and perceptual confrontation seems to underlie Kelly’s motivations and keep the viewer actively engaged.
For many years, Kelly has utilized pre-determined mathematical patterns, or algorithms, that dictate the color and angle of each painted or drawn line to create unpredictable visual patterns. His new paintings use ciphers that encode language as a means to arrive at compositions. Interested in, as Kelly describes it, “spirituality hacking,” his paintings reference texts by spiritual leaders like Ram Dass and Meher Baba, New Age phrases like “affirmations,” and tools of Eastern religion like “mantras.” Each work is a prayer manifesting positivity. In fact, circular canvases are rotated like a prayer wheel as part of their making. While Kelly considers a diverse array of spiritual topics intellectually and as a structural device, he also embodies the practices they espouse through a necessarily sustained, repetitive painting process. In the end, slowly accumulated energy is barely contained, radiating through the painted surface.
Connie Goldman: Genea & Mikey Kelly: Vibrate
October 5 – November 16, 2017
Artist Talk at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary Moderated by Rory Padeken, Associate Curator at San Jose Museum of Art? Thursday, October 5, 6-7:30pm
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 6-8pm
First Friday Reception: Friday, November 3, 6-8pm
Oakland, CA - Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to announce two concurrent solo exhibitions of works by Bay Area artists Connie Goldman and Mikey Kelly from October 6 to November 16, 2017. Paintings by these two Bay Area artists explore contemporary abstraction and color as well as motion, in both metaphorical or optical terms.
Connie Goldman’s new body of work entitled Genea, further explores the “tenuous equilibrium” in which human beings and everything in the universe exist. “Genea,” from the Greek, means “to become, to emerge, to transition from one point to another.” It suggests change and growth, which are inextricably linked.
Through a restrained formal language of color planes, angular shapes, and straight lines, Goldman’s oil paintings on dimensional panels express subtle shifts and implied movement, however glacial its pace. Shapes fold on themselves, lines dart through to connect discrete planes or segment monochromatic ones, surfaces are faceted, jutting forward and back. Colors are both in tension and in harmony with one
other at the same time.
These are slow paintings–slow in the making as well as in the viewing. A quick glance may register two planes when there is actually a single one in two tones. Something seen first as a shadow may reveal itself to be a recessed portion of the painted object. Surprising colors on the edges offer delightful moments of discovery. What may first seem simple and quiet becomes complex and energized, or vice versa. Even the experience of these works does not stay the same.
Mikey Kelly’s Vibrate highlights new work by Bay Area artist Mikey Kelly. Kelly’s recent acrylic paintings continue his interest in process-driven linear compositions that are optically charged. Reminiscent of woven textiles and Op Art by artists like Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gilbert Hsiao, and Susie Rosmarin, his dynamic fields of interference patterns come alive with a viewer’s interaction. This experiential and perceptual confrontation seems to underlie Kelly’s motivations and keep the viewer actively engaged.
For many years, Kelly has utilized pre-determined mathematical patterns, or algorithms, that dictate the color and angle of each painted or drawn line to create unpredictable visual patterns. His new paintings use ciphers that encode language as a means to arrive at compositions. Interested in, as Kelly describes it, “spirituality hacking,” his paintings reference texts by spiritual leaders like Ram Dass and Meher Baba, New Age phrases like “affirmations,” and tools of Eastern religion like “mantras.” Each work is a prayer manifesting positivity. In fact, circular canvases are rotated like a prayer wheel as part of their making. While Kelly considers a diverse array of spiritual topics intellectually and as a structural device, he also embodies the practices they espouse through a necessarily sustained, repetitive painting process. In the end, slowly accumulated energy is barely contained, radiating through the painted surface.
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