NYAB Event - Martha Russo "nomos"

Martha Russo "nomos"

Allan Stone Projects

This event has ended.

The Allan Stone Gallery presents nomos, the first New York solo exhibition of sculpture by Martha Russo. nomos includes three large abstract sculptures, nomos (cube), nomos (core) and nomos (fold), which are composed of thousands of organically-shaped, hollow, up to a foot-long, glazed-porcelain tubes.

The sculptures look soft and welcoming from afar, their silver-blonde colors like bleached driftwood. A closer look shows tubes shimmering in delicate tints. The viewer comes near and sees a disconcerting color range in the tube mouths, from pale greens to blood reds. Then the thousands of sharp tube mouths erase the impression of softness. Evoking a strong gut reaction, the sculptures cause people to speak of “touching seaweed,” “bones,” “clay” and revisiting long-forgotten visceral feelings or memories. Russo says, "My hope is the sea of tendrils creates a sensory experience that stimulates a flood of perceptions and interpretations."

In the art-making process, Russo is influenced by Eva Hesse, who said never to "squash a hunch." A family boat trip to fish for squid off the Rhode Island coast inspired Russo. One night, a flashlight beam in the water lured a squid from the darkness. The creature flooded the water with color and shimmered in a swirling phosphorescent glow, causing Russo to decide to use sculpture to create a similar experience of "happy disorientation," to surround viewers with a sense of "floating mass" while saturating their peripheral vision with delicate texture and color.

Drawing on the approximately 25,000 tubes she has made, Russo calls the sculpture assembly process, "painting with porcelain." She places each tube as carefully as a brushstroke. Because every hand-built installation is different, each time it is installed, Russo considers it a new work of art. Russo starts with a cluster of tubes "of similar ilk." The tubes’ forms bend, twist, widen, and narrow. Some are almost a foot long; others loop inward. She varies the pattern "as one might create variations in a flower garden," taking into consideration the rhythm and flow of the space where the work is exhibited. Each tube has a pointed end that fits snugly onto the Masonite pegboard covered with stretchy Japanese paper and clay pigment and backed with Styrofoam.

nomos (fold) which has never before been installed, measures 8’ X 9’ X 4’, weighs over 1,500 pounds. It is on three planes--two walls that meet in a corner and the proximate ceiling, creating a cave-like work. Martha Russo says, "When something is above you, there is a different pressure on your body," prompting an altered visceral experience. nomos (core), which hangs on the wall, measures 5' X 5' X 20" and weighs 900 pounds. First installed in early 2009, it is a wall piece on a single surface, and is more painterly than the other sculptures. nomos (cube), which is about 4' X 4' X 4', weighs about 1,300 pounds and appears to hover several inches above the floor. The most approachable of the three sculptures, nomos (cube) allows viewers to view this work from above. First created in 2004, it has been exhibited across the United States.