NYAB Event - Laura Battle "Recent Work"

Laura Battle "Recent Work"

Lohin Geduld Gallery

This event has ended.

Explorers and artists share the impulse for mapping, or making visible, unknown territories. In these elegant new works, Laura Battle charts the trajectories of universal forces and her own imagination. Using a diagrammatic drawing language with thin stains of paint layers, Battle conjures thoughts of antiquated maps and futuristic star charts.

Geometry holds an insatiable fascination for Battle. Not because of its concrete character, but because of its tremendous flexibility. Her images, which seem so assured, are derived from improvisation and intuition. Setting up a premise, Battle proceeds to build pattern structures. Like the ancient Greeks, Battle knows that the basic workings of compass and ruler can yield complex structures. As these patterns suggest other patterns, the artist adapts and shifts, making asymmetrical mappings of her own thoughts and questions.

While these images have a secular quality derived from scientific inquiry, they also possess hints of creation mythology and belief systems. One is reminded of both Galileo's observational drawings of the moon's phases, and Aboriginal dream state imagery. Battle makes no hierarchical distinctions, allowing art, science and myth to freely mix. Hints of Tantric and Judeo-Christian imagery mingle with EKG or wavelength patterns, forming a semaphore effect of communication.

Time is an ever-present theme in Battle's imagery. It is the time of celestial bodies moving through space, or the boundary expansion of the universe. The sense that we are part of a continuum, stretching infinitely backward and forward, takes hold. These challenging works present a forum where complex ideas can be visualized and tested. In her attempt to comprehend the unknown, Laura Battle creates a uniquely personal vision filled with exploration and beauty.

Media

• Painting
• Drawing

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