“Light” Exhibition

Miles McEnery Gallery

[Image: Trudy Benson "Light Pink Path" (2021) Acrylic and oil on canvas, 77 1/8 x 66 1/8 in.]

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Curated By Rico Gatson

MILES McENERY GALLERY presents Light, curated by Rico Gatson. The exhibition opens on 13 May and will remain on view through 19 June 2021. Light is the inaugural exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery’s newly renovated Chelsea location at 511 West 22nd Street.

“Light is energy, power, radiance, illumination, color, play, promise and hope. It’s transcendent. It’s the organizing force behind the exhibition which includes the work of twelve multidisciplinary artists.” — Rico Gatson

The impetus for Light derived from a quote by twentieth-century German-American painter Hans Hofmann, proclaiming “In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.” This exhibition articulates a belief in the fundamental power of light, in its various forms, to convey the magic of art. Motivated by an enduring appreciation for these artists, Gatson brings together a diverse group working across a variety of mediums.

The artists are connected through the ways in which light is transcended in their work. Benson, Isensee, and Moyer employ layered patterns, symbols, and forms to create rhythmic bursts of energy that pulse before the viewer’s eyes. The work of Fishman, Jackson, and Khan enlivens space and explore new possibilities for perception. Experiments in materials that stimulate the senses are driving forces behind the works of Huffman, Martin, and Wilson. Radiant color is simultaneously felt and seen in Gatson, Johnson, and Stopa’s paintings as glowing pigments ooze from one form to the next.

The exhibition extends an invitation to immerse oneself in metaphorical light, and experience the work of twelve artists together inspired by the power of illumination.