Ryan DaWalt Rachel Howe Shawn Kuruneru Jeffrey Scott Mathews Meghan Petras

Blackston is pleased to present Simultaneity, a group show featuring works by Brooklyn-based artists Ryan DaWalt, Rachel Howe, Shawn Kuruneru, Jeffrey Scott Mathews and Meghan Petras. A reception will be held for the artists on Sunday, January 8th from 6 to 8 p.m.

Simultaneity addresses a current zeitgeist of pattern, motif and process in the separate studio practices of five young New York artists. The title of the exhibition references artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay’s early Twentieth Century movement, which, in both paintings and textile works, heralded the interplay of divergent color, lines and abstract forms in a single frame of reference.

Ryan DaWalt’s steel geometric shapes on linen develop a unique color system across the plane. Using handmade pigments containing iron and steel particulates that are applied to linen backed by a magnetic field, the artist creates forms that are repeated and altered across the body of his work, resulting in a distinct color play that references formal art-making in addition to textile patterns.

Rachel Howe’s paper works are made with woven, hand-dyed cut strips of paper. Concerned with both process and psychological elements of visual expression, Howe frequently incorporates symbols and patterns from ancient, occult and craft traditions.

Shawn Kuruneru employs rigorous application of miniscule ink marks over canvas and panel surfaces to create highly detailed minimalist work. The undulation and accumulation of these marks develop compelling visual connections and perspective shifts, as well as altering the texture and tone of each surface. The artist’s sculptural piece in the exhibition incorporates elements of his mark-making across three dimensional space.

Using bold abstract gestures, Jeffrey Scott Mathews applies a liquid form of the heavy metal bismuth to linen canvases painted with symmetrical underpinnings. The concurrence of these pronounced metallic applications (out of which crystals grow) with a modulated background evinces a paradoxical relationship. Mathews also works with textiles in forming large canvas wall hangings replete with recurring angular components.

Meghan Petras applies fabric paint to canvas, then cuts, reassembles and sews the pieces into a whole canvas that is stretched across a painting frame. The results are bold and vital abstract paintings. The artist’s repeated gestural symbols and unique visual vocabulary reference Modernist traditions and equally the role of traditional craft disciplines in art-making.

Employing concurrent use of textile, formal and alchemic traditions and newly developed processes, the works in this exhibition all embody the dynamic potential of relational exploration via color (or lack thereof), mark, material and form.