Cheryl Hazan Gallery presents three artists who work with metal to perform a kind of alchemy or flux. With interests in science and nature – in different ways, each transforms the hardness of metal into organic forms.

One scientific definition of flux is the magnitude of a river’s current, that is, the amount of water that flows through a cross-section of the river each second. Another is the amount of sunlight that lands on a patch of ground each second is also a kind of flux… imagine a butterfly net. The amount of air moving through the net at any given instant in time is the flux. Or …the movement of a substance between compartments the movement of molecules across a membrane.

Matt Devine’s metal sculptures are comprised of numerous identical units welded together to form cohesive wholes. Painted white to maximize negative space and following no internal pattern or order, the wall pieces use a geometric frame (the square) as a parameter to contain the chaos of nature. The pedestal pieces are more organic in their composition consisting of freestanding and over lapping slabs in dynamic arrangements that suggest the flux of motion and evolution.

John Ensor Parker‘s graphite wall pieces contain layered equations and statements that function as visual elements. Though most are painted over and rubbed out, the presence of these hand written motifs become the underpinning of his surfaces. Parker’s intellectual foundation is in science. He believes that “in order to understand ourselves, we must understand our environment, as its laws dictate our possibilities.” His art is informed by his studies of physics, quantum mechanics, which in turn led him to investigate quantum entanglement or the energy that connects particles.

Carolina Sardi gives steel organic warmth. She pierces steel plates then applies white or color to them to create her installations, wall sculptures and functional pieces. Often she uses elegant clusters of egg shaped cut outs that are separated from the wall by a few inches of space to create a floating effect that results in light and shadow. Symbolically these ovoid units, both positive and negative, read as particles, entities or natural objects. The egg is not only a symbol of origin, but also one of transformation and flux from state to another.