NYAB Event - "Making Their Mark" Exhibition

"Making Their Mark" Exhibition

Susan Eley Fine Art

This event has ended.

Like fingerprints, artistsʼ lines and marks have unique characteristics that differentiate one artistʼs work from another. Making Their Mark explores the variety and beauty of mark making, ranging from straightforward linear graphite marks to intuitive gestural gouges. The overriding theme that runs through the show is the artistsʼ intention to let the mark speak for itself. The physicality of the paint is ever present and the act of transferring marks to the surface is integral to each artistʼs process of creating their work. Making Their Mark brings the viewer into the act of painting on an intimate level and reveals an almost x-ray of how marks are made and paintings are built. This show is the first in the Gallery series “Artists Curate.”

Maria OʼMalleyʼs work can be described as drawn paintings. Building up layers of marks with graphite and conte, OʼMalley creates an ethereal, non specific landscape full of small mysteries. Each small mark culminates into a larger if not specific plant, landscape and vista. Working on clayboard, the artist also includes wax and encaustic to build up layers and subtly separate layers of marks while creating a tone on tone texture on the surface of the painting.

Chase Langfordʼs Chroma series is as much about line and mark as it is about color, as the titles suggest. The lines first appear to be in grid form (Langford is fascinated with maps and grids), but on closer inspection we see the lines deviate slightly from a rigid grid and softly migrate into other layers. While the work appears to be mostly monochromatic at first, a closer look reveals brighter under paintings. The short linear brushstrokes strongly suggest the act of painting as a form of meditation and rhythm in mark making, with each mark a beat in time.

Audrey Phillipsʼ work reflects a purposeful intention to turn off the thinking mind and let a relaxed and meditative mind create gestural marks and washes of color. Phillips layers quick, almost frenetic line work with large areas of quiet color, with each layer revealing portions of each act of markings. Her paintings manage to rest in places that are a balance of smaller marks with large expanses of color.

In David Kiddʼs work the paint becomes itʼs own creative force, as it drips and drives down the surface of the canvas, creating its own network of veining and pattern. Kidd then adds and removes paint in response to what the paint has left behind, creating organic focal points and anchors within the composition. The result is a sublime and subtle network of intentional and incidental marks.
Lisa Pressman describes a process of discovery in her paintings. She lays down marks inspired by everyday momentary inspirations and develops each work through a series of purposeful marks, scrapes, gouges and layers of paint, while leaving unintended surprises a place to rest. Her marks are wanderings through an imaginary field, winding their way through colors and broad expanses of color that overlap and intertwine to create a webbed cohesion in her compositions.

The exploration of marks as an individual and intuitive act of art making, and in this case painting, answers as many questions as it leaves unsolved. How each artist comes to the place and practice of their individual mark is a process and constant discovery.