 Witness #2, 2002 oil on canvas, 42 x 42 inches Shoshana Dentz Paintings Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery is pleased to present, in her first solo exhibition, a new series of paintings and works on paper by Shoshana Dentz. With this body of work Dentz has created paintings that combine the ineffable beauty of abstraction with a personal and political narrative, which is implicit in the imagery she chooses. The most prevalent image throughout this body of work is the pattern of the Kuffieh, the scarf worn as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. By infusing these patterns within the body of abstraction, Dentz explores the conflicts between her humanitarian ideals and the values instilled in her as a child and shows how these principles can be broken down through representation. The surfaces of the paintings reflect the struggle between opposing principles, ideas and arguments. Through the use of both opaque and translucent layers of paint, Dentz's vibrant planes of color become a series of veils, each layer adding to the next, in a process of revealing and concealing. Dentz's obsessive patterns weave their way in and out of the canvases distorting the viewer's pictorial space. Just as a pattern or mark disappears, it reappears in the far corner of the canvas, or slyly hides beneath a layer of transparent paint. Pours and washes, gesture and impasto, pattern making as well as flat, non-expressive planes of color are each employed for their emotional and diaristic potentials. Through a re-evaluation of abstract mark making, color and its relationship to imagery, symbols and representation these paintings ultimately come to represent a narrative of personal liberation. For Dentz, "painting can be a battleground for ideals and for perfection, a place to propose the possibility of their existence, and even their right to be desired." Shoshana Dentz's work was most recently exhibited at the Armory Show this past February with Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, and is currently included in a group show titled "Mixed Description" at Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston. Dentz’s work was shown in a group show at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in the summer of 2001 and at White Columns in 1998. Ausstellungsdauer: 19.4. - 18.5.2002 Öffnungszeiten: Di-Sa 10 - 18 Uhr Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery 526 W. 26th Street New York, NY 10001 T: 212.243.3335 F: 212.243.1059 E-Mail gallery@nicoleklagsbrun.com |
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