NYAB Event - “Untitled (Hybrid)” Exhibition

“Untitled (Hybrid)” Exhibition

Robert Miller Gallery

This event has ended.

Robert Miller presents Untitled (Hybrid), an exhibition focusing on the work of Lee Krasner with works by Polly Apfelbaum, Alisa Baremboym, Sarah Cain, Leidy Churchman, Joanne Greenbaum, Julia Hechtman and Dona Nelson. Curated by Kate McNamara, Director of Boston University Art Gallery and co-founder of project space Cleopatra’s in Greenpoint, the exhibition presents a new generation of work in conversation with Krasner’s legacy.

The work of Lee Krasner is relevant as ever today, particularly among an intergenerational group of artists working across disciplines, utilizing and redefining a language of abstraction. Krasner’s critical body of work in painting, collage, and print has defined a radical and sophisticated approach to abstraction. Collectively, Krasner’s paintings demonstrate a beautiful and sometimes erratic choreography. Made up of gestural marks, lush color, and densely constructed compositions, Krasner opened up an integral conversation about the possibility and expansion of painting that continues to work its way into artists’ practices today. The title of the exhibition, excerpted from Krasner’s 1962 painting of the same name, suggests a new generation of work, equally provocative and occasionally stubborn; boundary-pushing and incredibly generous; and very much in conversation with Krasner’s legacy. Her work has not only provided a springboard for many artists working today, but Krasner continues to be a critical contribution toward contemporary art practices engaged in the art world.

The eight artists of Untitled (Hybrid) investigate, challenge, appropriate, and extend critical aspects of materiality, process, abstraction, and pictorial ideas. While they differ in approaches, each work draws attention to technique and pushes the conventions of medium through an active investigation of abstraction. A continuous visual dialogue demonstrated in multiple mediums is framed by, and very much in dialogue with, Krasner’s timeless works. Untitled (Hybrid) creates a charged space where these relevant discourses can be considered, without being imposed, and petitions the viewer to deliberate on her own assumptions about painting, as well as their relationship to Krasner’s body of work. The exhibition suggests certain associations and similarities in defining the works and artists of the exhibition, as well as captures a current working definition for the word “abstraction,” which Krasner defined so instinctively and intuitively through her many bodies of work throughout her life.

The artists of Untitled (Hybrid) push the boundaries of medium, confront notions of style, and expand upon conceptual and aesthetic approaches to art making through a constant investigation into the possibilities of abstraction. Untitled (Hybrid) is in your face, and not always elegant; beautiful and fearless; demonstrating extreme skill. As works they are radical and challenging; they invite you in and force you out. The works that make up Untitled (Hybrid), in keeping with the challenging example Krasner set in place, engage diverse and powerful characteristics that include grit, emotion, parody, antagonism, and corporality.