Tact-Traction
September 8, 2006- October 21, 2006
Reception: September 8, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
520 W 21st St
AnnaKustera is pleased to present tact-traction, a three-person show of abstract
paintings by
Stephanie Campos,
Ethan Greenbaum, and
Eric Hibit, opening on September 8 and
continuing through October 21, 2006.
Working outside of the fashionable “feel good figuration” genre so prevalent in today’s New York art world,
these three young artists make abstract paintings that riff on or eliminate the “picture” space preferring to
highlight a more three dimensional, “tact”-tile surface. In their hands, paint becomes a sculptural object,
which can be layered, excavated or collaged along with other materials. The painting’s facade becomes
the bedrock for a variable construction site of texture, color, and form.
With an emphasis on the physicality of their respective materials, these artists create work that is in
essence a microcosm of abstract painting strategies minus any particular deference or overt irony. They
demonstrate a continued dedication to and the vitality of abstraction in contemporary art.
Stephanie Campos’ reductive compositions and palette belie more complex visual
intents. Black, white, beige and red paint is thickly applied to the surface and sculpted
into forms that recall the paintings of Myron Stout or Piet Mondrian. However, it is the
artist’s impasto application that subverts the historically smoother and hard-edged
forms of her predecessors allowing for updated notions of geometric refinement.
Stephanie Campos’ paintings have been included in numerous group shows in New
York, including ‘TM/GS: CD/ SC’ at Oliver Kamm/5BE Gallery this past Spring and
‘Girls Gone Wild’ at Bronwyn Keenan Gallery (2003). Stephanie is a MFA graduate of
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2000) and lives in New York.
Referencing architecture, signage and early 20th Century abstraction, Ethan
Greenbaum’s paintings are records of accumulation and distillation. He juxtaposes the
decaying urban landscape (its buildings and its inhabitants) with the gleaming, hopeful
geometry of new construction. Alternating between sculpting and painting, Greenbaum
literally constructs his figures and cityscapes from such varied material as foam, resin,
and sintra plastic. Combined with paint, they create fields of texture and brightly hued
color that allows “for an exploration of how the physical landscape shapes individual
psychology and identity”.
Ethan Greenbaum is a recent MFA graduate of Yale University (2005) and debuted his
work last Fall in a two person show at the Buia Gallery. Ethan lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Eric Hibit’s energetic canvases bombard the viewer with explosions of texture and high
key color. Passages of line, depictions of deeper space, and quotations from the
lexicon of abstract painting are intertwined, overlapped, and coalesced with sculptural
elements to create an engaging visual playground. Hibit’s paintings subvert and
redefine pictorial space; making a visual commentary on notions of creation and
entropy. Their large scale disorients the viewer leaving them to wonder whether they
have tumbled into or are being flung out of a chaotic and vibrant world of the artist’s
creation.
Eric Hibit is a MFA graduate of Yale University (2003) and was included in the ‘Toxic’
exhibition at the Max Protetch Gallery (2003). Eric lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show| Location | map | | Gallery | AnnaKustera | | Address | 520 W 21st St, Ground floor New York (Chelsea) NY, 10011 United States | | Phone | 212-989-0082 | | Fax | 212-989-0456 | | Hours | Tue-Sat 11-6 | |
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