September 12 to October 18, 2014
528 West 26th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh avenues
New York City, 212 315 0470

High gloss panels in resonant hues that range from tan, red, blue, and green through grey and black are placed at varying distances from each other around the walls of the gallery.  As sizes vary, a frieze-like composition in colored rectangles configures differently depending on viewpoint. On passing through Kate Shepherd’s exhibition at Galerie Lelong surface reflections on each panel respond to gallery lighting, shadows and any transient passing of visitors who themselves can observe others, vacant architectural space or their own reflection. Three more panels, be it of an entirely different kind, rest on the floor, lean against a wall or rest on a shelf. An equivalent to the lines visible from closer proximity on the gloss panels emerge in these works too: on the plywood floor piece they are laser cut, after a pattern of cracked concrete, while the other two works are actually fractured and cracked at angels. Either way, all the works in the exhibition have fine lines of one kind or another. In contrast, the painted lines of the gloss panels which derive from computer imaging – more of which later – differ from the other three panels in that the lines they have are accessible as marked, broken or cut – subject to the given happenstance out of which they came – and do not have the ambiguity of the quasi pictorial illusionism present in the enamel painted gloss panels.

The reflections of the gloss panels bring to mind Gerhard Richter’s grey paintings on glass and when the panels consist of two joined parts of contrasting color Blinky Palermo’s fabric paintings. As the panels all refer to painting one way or another and use the characteristics of the room – they are not passive, like fictive windows hanging on a wall – another apposite artist to mention (one for whom, like Shepherd herself, the epithet of minimalist seems a misnomer) is Adrian Schiess. This artist also takes the object qualities of painting and situates them as the subject of an expansive conversation inclusive of extra pictorial possibilities.

Lines across the surface of Shepherd’s gloss panels are based on computer modeling of an image of an Alvar Aalto bent plywood chair and naked models that appear in a 3-D computer game. Shepherd has reversed the process in creating her own three-dimensional models from which to subsequently create two-dimensional images traced in paint across a super illusionistic and reflective surface. For Shepherd this process continues to be explored after many years. What is different in this exhibition is the modified serially transformed computer game cipher of a figure to a figure that has distinctly classical connotations. Where previously abstract spaces were established with Shepherd’s typically fine linear constructs, each one independent, in this new body of work a process of change is elucidated from one painting to the next. Hence the reference in the exhibitions title, to a game of passing on information that involves inevitably changes because of what is added or subtracted in the exchange. Titles of paintings take their names from the computer files that they are based on – another indicator of the parallel process echoed in the paintings.

The process is most explicit perhaps in the triptych womantorse daz3d2 Draw-On-1.lrfr(three scenes) (2014) where pale lines on a black ground shift subtly as the gentle arc of a woman’s body is variously traced in curving vertical lines. Each panel is itself made from two abutted panels and in catching the available light differently; the tone of what are in fact identically colored panels is changed. This gives the impression of lines passing through a different zone or quality of light. From outlined traces located on an equivocal surface to linear signs of fatigue and stress, Shepherd’s otherwise bluntly physical paintings open in both increments and jolts from one distinct sensation to another, from the solid to the ephemeral.

The post Fine Lines: Kate Shepherd at Galerie Lelong appeared first on artcritical.

March 24 to April 30, 2011
528 West 26^th St, between 10th and 11th avenues
New York City, 212-315-0470

In this new body of work Kate Shepherd adeptly fuses modernist architectural images with formal minimalism and a compelling eccentricity.  And Debris presents twelve glossy oil and enamel paintings and seventeen adorably homespun wire sculptures.  The paintings are created with Shepherd’s characteristic coolness; she uses architecture and animation programs on her computer to map out her composition before painting.  The finished pieces reflect this measured approach – they are elegant and alluring– at once angular and lyrical.  Against high-gloss monochromatic enamel backgrounds the artist dangles and intertwines collapsed geometric shapes etched in wavering white lines of oil paint.  Titles range from the descriptive and comparatively straightforward Hung Tied String Figure on Grey (2010) to the appealingly esoteric Violet Grey African Rabbit Skin (2010).  Rabbit skins exist as empty vessels, divested of the living animal they once encased, and re-imagined by Shepherd as triangles and quadrilaterals suspended without infrastructure and hanging limp.

The wire sculptures consist entirely of unbent coat-hangers awkwardly reshaped into irregular amoebic forms and suspended from the gallery ceiling with 28 gauge steel wire so they dangle at eye level with the standing viewer.  Eight are human-scale and vaguely creepy; their negative space threatening, like the shadows of sinister ghosts, or portals into a disordered alternate universe.  When viewed as a group, especially from end to end, they oddly resemble 3-D versions of Ellsworth Kelly’s plant drawings, twisting and swaying gently in eddies of air.  In the side gallery there is another series of smaller wire sculptures rather less successful then their larger counterparts.  At about half the size, they are a bit baffling, appearing more as puzzles or questions then the statements and demands of the large-scale works.   The sculptures are at their best when viewed en masse – their amalgamated formlessness is visually enticing and borders on the physical, as the viewer walks around the works.  I was strongly tempted to climb through some of the larger works – just to see what was on the other side.

Viewed singly, the medium of the sculptures becomes the message, as one is reminded of the unpleasant connotations of the coat hanger in the quotidian culture, from back-alley abortions to the hideous scene from the movie, Mommie Dearest: “No more wire hangers!”

The exhibition’s title theme, debris, is underscored in grainy black and white photographs printed on newsprint, displayed folded in a case at the entrance and available as handouts.  The photos are of the view from the artist’s studio – a messy detritus-filled lot and a tangle of dissected wire hangers reinforcing the mundane simplicity of junk and underscoring its alchemical transformation into art objects.

The exhibition is quirky and captivating, inviting gallery goers to linger in contemplation whether deciphering the twisted geometries of the paintings, admiring their shiny surfaces and pleasing colors, or confronting the ­­­compelling ambiguity of the wire sculptures.  Shepherd’s older work was more blatantly architectural (she has a background in architecture) and her work’s evolution into a more veiled and nuanced subtlety is a pleasure to see.  A new unrest has crept in, adding layers of complexity and challenging easy interpretation.  One wonders if a glimpse through the coat-hanger portals or an untangling of the paintings’ ordered chaos would yield a view into a parallel world – one slightly more sinister than our own.

The post Through the Coat-Hanger Portal: Kate Shepherd’s Debris appeared first on artcritical.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/201583464″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Arthur Danto, Vincent Katz, and Linda Yablonsky joined David Cohen to discuss Kara Walker at the Whitney and Sikkema Jenkins, Karen Yasinsky at Mireille Mosler, Isaac Julien at Metro Pictures, Kate Shepherd at Galerie Lelong, and Antony Gormley at Sean Kelly.

The post November 2007: Arthur Danto, Vincent Katz, and Linda Yablonsky with moderator David Cohen appeared first on artcritical.