NYAB Event - Shanee Epstein “States of Mind”

Shanee Epstein “States of Mind”

440 Gallery

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For her fifth solo show at 440 Gallery artist Shanee Epstein exhibits spatial give and take, the shifting between the simple and the complex, the narrative and the abstract, and the geometry of shape with the sensuality of color and texture. This body of work consists of collages using handmade paper and fragments of earlier work. Some of the new pieces are extremely simple, some layered and complicated, some remain within the boundaries of the rectangle, some have edges that push beyond those boundaries and create new shapes.

In her last exhibit at 440 Gallery Epstein pushed into a newer dimension and experimental forms when she exhibited photography and sculptural work made from transformed wooden cigar boxes. This current work is a return to a more familiar medium but the body of work is informed by those diversions; it has expanded beyond its earlier limits. The edges of these pieces are undefined, they jut in unexpected ways and suggest the sculptural attitude of the boxes. She is physically expanding the edges of the work; which are not pre-defined but develop organically. The work incorporates past drawings, paintings and photographs into current layers of paint, handmade paper, bits of string and embroidery. The juxtaposition of old work and new work adds an autobiographical element to her mark making.

“I am trusting the sensibility of the process. Learning to be quiet with each piece and allowing it to develop mirrors my own state of mind as I am working, whether it be simple, quiet or complicated.”

Shanee Epstein received her MFA at Pratt Institute, where she was awarded the Pratt Institute Award for Painting. She studied art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and received early training in sculpture, pottery and painting at her uncle’s studio on Cape Cod and traditional figurative classes at the Worcester Art Museum. She has exhibited extensively in the United States and her work is in private collections in North America, Israel and Europe. In 2005 she co-founded the 440 Gallery in Park Slope Brooklyn.