A group show featuring the work of Joseph Burwell, Gillian Christy, Tricia Keightley, Beth Krebs, Sylvan Lionni, Christian Nguyen and Stacy Seiler.

The Mikhail Zakin Gallery at The Art School at Old Church presents Elements, a group exhibition of contemporary artists investigating architectural and spatial concepts within their artwork.

Elements is an exhibition examining artists’ use of architectural signs, techniques, and styles to bring about new metaphors and inquiries into the metaphysical and intangible elements of art and architecture. Unrestrained by the physical requirements of architects, artists are free to use the seemingly mundane elements of architecture to bring forward deeper meaning and inspiring visions.

Joseph Burwell’s renderings and installations are created with a mix of precision and chance, representing impossible spaces that could possibly be inhabited by an avant-garde architect of the future. Combining architectural motifs from disparate epochs, his pieces float between the past, present, and future. Gillian Christy is a sculptor working with metal to create monumental objects, generally in the public realm. Her work is made for public spaces, using architectural elements and industrial symbols to express underlying meanings about her larger community.

Tricia Keightley’s paintings are an explosion of chaotic and colorful abstract symbols, combined to create compositions that reference cityscapes and large industrial complexes. Although purposely not defined and remaining a truly abstracted vision, Keightley’s works speak to the idea of architecture as living form, always in flux, and never as permanent as it seems. Beth Krebs is an installation artist creating spatial interventions to uncover different perspectives using elements of our built environment that are commonly ignored. Her whimsical projects magnify space in ways that accentuate subtle nuances of the sites where her interventions take place.

Sylvan Lionni’s paintings are influenced by geometric abstraction and minimalism. Using everyday objects as a starting point, his meticulous technique brings these objects into the realm of art, stripping them of all functionality and purpose. The formalist nature of his work and the impeccable execution of the pieces bring forth a truly unique shift in perception.

Christian Nguyen employs a technique of layering resin over traditional architectural renderings that are meticulously drawn on each layer. The combined layers come together to create a proper, logical and to-scale space, viewed from different angles and through perceptible walls. Using small elements of color, Nguyen works to dismantle the architectural logic of his pieces, keeping the viewer’s perspective wavering between abstraction and representation. Stacy Seiler’s charcoal drawings take on more urgency due to recent events in the New England area. Her representations of power lines and their convertors, high up on poles, become more than just tertiary elements in the lives of humans, but actually retain and speak to an urgency and need that is so ingrained, it becomes nearly imperceptible.