Margaret Noel "Second Shift"
First Street Gallery
This event has ended.
First Street Gallery presents an exhibition of recent works by Brooklyn artist Margaret Noel, recipient of the Gallery's 2011 National Juried Show Award.
The densely layered surfaces of Noel's compositions document the varied American landscape, seen here in rolling expanses and spaces fractured by industry. Beginning with observational drawings done on site, the pieces fuse traditional techniques with new media: combining silverpoint with ink, collage with encaustic.
Viewed as a series, the repeated forms echo the abstraction of memory - as each image evolves from drawing to collage to painting, the resulting distortions parallel the blur and shift of memory over time. The depicted structures are empty factories that have lost much of their relevance to the communities around them, but continue to dot the post-industrial American landscape. Similarly, pentimenti - obscured but visible traces of the history of the painting process - remain etched into the surface of the wax. Both the pentimenti and the abandoned structures are metaphors for the act of painting itself, often considered obsolete in the landscape of contemporary art, but still tenacious, compelling, and influential.
Noel currently divides her time between her studio in Brooklyn and her position as Assistant Professor of Fine Art at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
[Image: Margaret Noel "Brooklyn Cement" (2011) collage on panel 9.5 x 13 in.]
Media
Schedule
from January 10, 2012 to January 28, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-01-12 from 18:00 to 20:00