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Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Susanna Heller at Magnan Projects

Susanna Heller, On the Heel -Toe Express, 2008. Oil on canvas, 36 x 31 inches
Susanna Heller, On the Heel -Toe Express, 2008. Oil on canvas, 36 x 31 inches

on view at Magnan Projects, 317 Tenth Avenue, through February 14

Susanna Heller transforms the visual and tactile experiences of her walks along the Greenpoint waterfront and across the Williamsburg Bridge into visions that straddle a divide between chaos and fragile structure. Animistic lines suggest organic and manufactured forms, urban detritus and weird celestial accidents. Streaky and modulated whites and blues and grays and browns, vibrant and chalky ochre and rusty and neon oranges, convey specific surfaces that reflect and absorb natural light that has been filtered through layers of airborne pollutants. Her renderings of swathes of sky are beleaguered with a sense of ominous foreboding but they always verify the artist’s actual experiences of various times of day in the outdoor terrain.

This was an artcritical CAPSULES in January 2009.

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