Selections 39

Selections 39 was a group exhibition of new work by ten emerging artists chosen through The Drawing Center's unique Viewing Program. Included in Selections 39 were: Betsy Berne, Patti Blau, Leslie Enders, Beverly Fishman, Mylo Freeman, Robert Hoerlein, Robbin Murphy, Tony Serio, Tim Spelios, and William Staples.

Tony Serio's charcoal and gesso drawings probed the darker undercurrents of everyday events and routine encounters. In her playful cartoon-like ink drawings Patti Blau isolated mundane household objects, seeking to endow them with a life of their own. The elegant charcoal and pastel drawings of Leslie Enders were a celebration of youth based on figure studies of her own children. Robbin Murphy drew upon the landscape of his youth in Northern Idaho in his work which used acrylic paint with rhoplex as a medium for transferring printed type. In his acrylic and oil drawings Robert Hoerlein positioned two or three different visual languages on the same two-dimensional plane without allowing them to come together as a coherent whole. The material for Tim Spelios' tiny monochromatic collages was drawn from a wide variety of sources and was selected primarily for its abstract qualities. Beverly Fishman's vibrantly-colored abstractions investigated the inner workings of the human body, the tubes and vessels which defined existence. The Brooklyn Bridge provided a starting point for Mylo Freeman's large abstractions in pastel, watercolor, ink and bleach. William Staples' exuberant acrylics explored the possibilities of paint using recognizable forms. Betsy Berne used erasers, palette knife and razor blades with charcoal, oil stick and stand oil to achieve a rich surface texture in her haunting and evocative work.

All the artists in Selections 39 participated in a symposium Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 pm. The artists discussed their work and answered questions from the audience.