NYAB Event - Mary Westring “Mass Transit”

Mary Westring “Mass Transit”

Figureworks

This event has ended.

Figureworks presents Mass Transit, Mary Westring’s recent paintings and sculpture addressing our subway system. Westring has been exploring this subject for many years but this latest body of work reflects on how the system humble the masses. Her subject is most timely as it coincides with our current weekend-suspended L train service and notable overcrowding of all the subway lines in general.
Westring says of this series, “Mass Transit, or rather, the transit of the masses. New Yorkers getting from one place to another, submissive, patient, resigned, quiet. I observe them as they sit or stand, lost in thought, reading, listening to their ipods, studying their notes, eating, staring into space, oblivious to their fellow passengers, strangers who share a brief time of enforced intimacy. The subway, where all of us in our individuality become part of an anonymous whole.”

A number of Westring’s paintings are cleverly scaled to embody an entire subway car or train platform. Long horizontals embody brightly-lit cars as a highlight the darkened reflections of countless riders. Westring has then lifted some of her painted figures from the canvas and created a series of unglazed, clay figures in various subway scenarios, such as a group of passengers grasping a subway pole at rush hour and still avoiding eye contact. The two series work well together to combine moments of levity and a touch of humanity into a weary, daily commute.

Media

• Painting
• Sculpture

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