Selections 31

In the exhibition Selections 31, works on paper by ten emerging artists were on view at The Drawing Center. The artists, selected from participants in The Drawing Center's ongoing Artists' Viewing Program, presented a variety of works on paper, which expanded contemporary definitions of drawing and enhanced traditional conceptions of the medium. The artists in the exhibition were: Jim Chiros, Adam Cox, Barry Feuerstein, Marcia Godosky, Ian Hughes, Ann L. Ledy, David Lowe, Peter Mollenkof, Mekki Schmidt, and Gwen Strahle. All artists had participated in the Artists' Viewing Program at The Drawing Center.

Qualities of paint and pigment dominated the concerns of sculptor Barry Feuerstein, who attempted to saturate his works with color through the addition of dry pigment to oil paint. Filled with rich earth tones of remarkable density, the drawings were expressive of strong elemental forces and instincts or emotions. Ian Hughes' steely gray abstractions could also be described as personal landscapes. The artist saw his drawings as an exploration of a specific place that existed only within the confines of the work itself.

In his abstract charcoal drawings Adam Cox interpreted the dialogue between sexuality he saw as rooted in the body and that which had been shaped by cultural or political values. Expressive of a range of emotions, from joy and naiveté to anxiety and repression, all of the drawings shared a sensuousness of surface built up from layers of rubbed charcoal. Marcia Godosky and Gwen Strahle both addressed the dilemma of how to accommodate three-dimensional volume in two-dimensional space. Godosky's monochromatic abstracts began from everyday objects and evolved into nonrepresentational forms suggestive of many objects. Gwen Strahle's luminous still lifes depicted a type of space she saw beginning at the picture plane and expanding outward, creating a shallow box-like space reminiscent of relief carving. The jars and vases that formed the subject of her work were not special or precious in a conventional sense, but became significant as they entered into the life of the picture.

The figure provided a starting point for both Mekki Schmidt and Ann Ledy. In Hommage a Goya, Mekki Schmidt transformed Goya's Maja into a flying figure that soared above the chaotic and churning rhythms of everyday life. In her lyrical diptychs Ann Ledy used the figure as a metaphor for personal energy. Ledy created a fleeting reality from simple shapes, a limited palette and a minimum of defining line; she used the diptych form to set up a visual dialogue between these two seemingly evanescent images.

Although radically different in technique, the work of David Lowe and Peter Mollenkof shared remarkably similar concerns relating to spiritual forces at work in the universe. Locations in Greece and Italy provided the subject for Lowe's oversize drawings of monumental architecture isolated in a landscape. Peter Mollenkof's large monochromatic graphite drawings had as a source of inspiration Japanese gardens and architecture, both in terms of their formal qualities and their meditative or spiritual nature. Jim Chiros' haunting landscapes were completed during a recent stay in the Dominican Republic, where the artist was influenced by the lush tropical surroundings. Chiros worked with the surface of his drawings in a direct and physical way, sometimes with his hands or feet or by cutting or scratching into the paper.

The artists in Selections 31 were present at an informal symposium on Wednesday, December 11th, at 7 p.m. Each artist discussed his or her work and answered questions from the audience.