Having long been accused of being alot like a NY gallery, Plus has decided to see what it's like to have work by NY artists of significant career stature up in our space. Hot on the heels of one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the decade, Colin Livingston's massive undertaking that filled the space of the gallery with "art as merchandise," comes an exhibition that we have been working towards for many years, one that helps define some of the reasons behind our move and development of a world-class gallery for Denver.
TAKE FIVE is a curatorial effort that brings artwork by five established, widely acclaimed and collected mid-career artists to Plus. Over the course of a year and on the streets in NY, our represented artist Naomi Cohn has pulled together a talented group of individuals with careers that speak for themselves and who have graciously agreed to participate in TAKE FIVE. Some of the five, like Judith Linhares and John Newman, have been highly influential in the contemporary scene over the last 30 years. Others are currently reaching major heights in their careers, including Joanna Pousette-Dart who completed a beautiful new painting expressly for our exhibition. Joe Fyfe is a heavy hitter in contemporary art journalism and a successful artist in his own right using dyed fabrics to create beautiful abstractions. And Jessica Weiss, who will speak this evening on the Untitled Art Show, has built a solid career using layered screen-printing techniques to craft dense surfaces of woodland imagery.
All are worth a deep look, we invite you to experience this endeavor and join us for the opening reception this Thursday, January 21st from 6-8pm. Jessica Weiss will be with us that evening and both she and Naomi will speak about the work and the fine points behind the selected artists.
Here's what the critics have said about the artists:
“Ms. Pousette-Dart is serious about Modernist abstraction, but there is nothing too sober or sanctimonious about what she does. Her paintings have lovely, slightly dry eggshell surfaces and a colorful, slightly muted palette with pastel tendencies. They have been made with a caressing touch that suggests thoughtful spontaneity. While the compositions of loopy shapes and lines fit tightly into the eccentrically shaped panels -- in some cases evoking Northwest Indian design -- they don't feel cramped; they convey a buoyant, free feeling. There is a mutually responsive relationship between the container and the contained -- or between body and soul -- that is a
pleasure to behold” - KEN JOHNSON, NY Times, June 2004
“Here, patterned textiles (a more recent development for Fyfe) are combined with pieces of felt, silk, painted or neutral jute or burlap. The inherent freedom of expression and joy in interrelating different materials bring the
art of quilt making, as well as collage to mind. There is a striking looseness in these works … they contain the poetry of a starry sky and the luminosity of a stained-glass window in the afternoon sun.” - Stephanie Buhmann, ArtCritical.com, February 2009
“Knowing her history, you might conclude that Ms. Linhares has been an unacknowledged inspiration for many of today's younger artists. Regardless of which way the generational influences have flowed, Ms. Linhares certainly
has tapped into her own rambunctious and starry-eyed inner child to wonderfully infectious effect.” - KEN JOHNSON, NY Times, April 2006
“Over the decades his work has become smaller, livelier and younger, as well as more original, eccentric and precise. It speaks, increasingly, in multiple voices. Each delightful, surprising object in this show offers a circuitous commentary of contrasting forms, colors, materials, techniques, values and cultures. Diversity itself is the content… Mr. Newman’s latest efforts subvert the usual subjugation of parts to wholes and suggest a world
of specific objects beyond Donald Judd’s wildest dreams.” - ROBERTA SMITH, NY Times, 2009
“For the past ten years, Ms. Weiss has been questioning notions of memory and how they permeate present experiences. Forms and patterns inspired, reinterpreted or directly culled from vintage wall coverings are insinuated in fairy tale narratives. By appropriating images processed in a different medium, the artist is lending past pictures another life and by extension giving these the possibility of another “playing field…” - ARTCAT, 2007
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