DCKT Contemporary is pleased to present two solo exhibitions: new paintings by CLAIRE SHERMAN and new needlepoint works by MARIA E. PIÑERES.

CLAIRE SHERMAN’s paintings address tragedy, romanticism and ambivalence through landscape. Philosophical writings on the sublime and existentialism influence her recent paintings depicting scenes of vast open spaces, cliffs, ravines, rapids and other ominous topography. The choice of landscape is deliberately idiosyncratic; the scenes can be anywhere or anything: tropical, arctic, lunar, or mundane. However, despite the hopeful curiosity this variety implies, emptiness pervades each environment. SHERMAN’s approach is bold and painterly with large sweeping brushstrokes, from thin to overly thick areas of paint, as her images waver between abstraction and representation.

SHERMAN lives and works in Chicago. Her work is included in the Margulies Collection (Miami) and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland, KS). Recent solo exhibitions include Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago) and Hof & Huyser (Amsterdam). She was included in the group exhibition Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape at the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY) in 2008. SHERMAN has been selected as a recipient of The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program for 2009-10.

MARIA E. PIÑERES’s needlepoint works place the nude figure in an optical duel with decorative arts. Tantalizing black and white nudes are juxtaposed with the sharp bright colors borrowed and built upon from wallpaper patterns of the glamorous Art Deco era, questioning positive and negative space. The black, white and grey figures emphasize both the nostalgic value of erotic nudes of early men’s “physique” periodicals and “girlie” magazines.

PIÑERES lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include Walter Maciel Gallery (Los Angeles). She was included in the group exhibitions Pricked: Extreme Embroidery at the Museum of Arts & Design (New York) and Celebrity at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Scottsdale, AZ).