Group Exhibition at Neuhoff Gallery
September 22 through November 5, 2005
"Today's Voice: Exploring Alternative Applications," a range of
artworks by youthful contemporary artists using familiar materials
in surprising and inventive ways is on display at Neuhoff Gallery,
41 East 57 th Street, in Manhattan beginning September 22. The wide embrace
of these nine artists's works include industrial materials such as Bill Thompson's
irregularly-shaped urethane on epoxy wall sculptures. With their undulating
surfaces and gleaming finishes, they resemble oversized gems in the
rough; Katy Stone's imaginatively-layered transmedia works of acrylic paint
on transparent 
mylar
sheets incorporate the shifting ephemerality of cast shadows. Contrasting
textures and lucencies are found in Stacey Neff's poignant blown-glass,
steel, and mixed media sculpture of playful distortion and gravity; Adelaide
Paul's truncated, exquisite porcelain horses under colorful patchworks of
leather allude to her interest in animal activism. The novel use of multiple
readymades is evident in Alesha Fiandaca's pigmented tampon and polyester
resin installation, a field of colorful flowers individually immortalized
within permanent dewdrops; Sharon Ryan's birchwood panels, with their annular
rings selectively accentuated with colorful acrylic paint, reference biomorphic
structures. Similarly, the constructed works of Bean Finneran are composed
of unjoined units made from earthenware, glaze, and acrylic stain, referencing
nature-built structures of organic tidal flotsam and the artist's lifelong
relationship with shorelines. Photo-based works include Norifumi Inada's
organic motifs in his visually tactile monochrome prints, derived from a
19th-century glass collodium process; in contrast are Charles Cohen's digitally-voided
figures photographed from internet pornography sites. Both underscore the
painterly concerns of figure-ground relationships.
It is said that the challenges of art include its ability to re-present the familiar in refreshing ways as well as to transcend its own materiality. Towards these goals, the ensemble of pieces in "Today's Voice" has handily succeeded.
Tel. 212.838.1122
Fax. 212.838.1250
