James Biederman Matt Harle Eric Johnson Marthe Keller Keiko Narahashi Russell Roberts Sue Scott Rebecca Smith Kelly Wilson

Heskin Contemporary is pleased to announce “Linked; Small Works, Big Ideas”, a group show of painting, sculpture and hybrid works by nine artists, curated by Jennifer Riley. This exhibition brings together artists who share a thoughtful, expansive, attitude towards the genres, mediums, and boundaries in which they work.

Much of the work touches on themes related to architecture, interval, and pattern. Many of the artists work in a form or discipline different from that which they initially trained. All priviledge color or the use of paint in collaboration with forms that implicate spaces beyond the physical to include the mental and the emotional. The curatorial impulse for this show stems from the desire to expose the traces of overlapped intentions apparent in works made by artists who step back and forth effortlessly between the languages of two and three dimensional thinking and space making. Some create concrete works and some call attention to a sense of the permeability between space and matter while others who employ an additive process, achieve a poetic sense of accretion and narrative.

James Biederman makes casein and cardboard wall reliefs and conventionally mounted expressive, abstract paintings on linen, Matt Harle uses wood, mylar, acrylic medium and pigment to make comic and vulnerable sculpture, Rebecca Smith’s line driven, reductive and playful sculptures are made of hand painted flat strips of welded steel, Keiko Narahashi’s box constructions are made of Italian parchment paper dipped in gesso to which paint Styrofoam, wax and various objects are added and Sue Scott uses wood cloth, paint, glue, staples, flashe and acrylic paints to make quirky, elegant wall mounted hybrid objects.

Marthe Keller uses a variety of materials and approaches to create vibrant unstretched paintings. Russell Roberts, uses shapes as signs and structures to make abstract visual narratives in oil on canvas, Eric Johnson explores the tradition of abstraction using rhythmic structures and a geometric motif, and Kelly Wilson finds an architectural presence within the figural narratives of still life.