NYAB Event - "Line By Line" Exhibition

"Line By Line" Exhibition

Stephan Stoyanov Gallery

This event has ended.

Stephan Stoyanov Gallery presents Line by Line a group show featuring the work of Amelie Chabannes, Jen Mazza and Brigitte Nahon. This is the first time the three artists, all represented by the gallery, have been show together in the same exhibition. On first glance, their work demonstrates different aesthetic sensibilities (and they are quite visually diverse) however, upon closer inspection the viewer notices similarities in both the visual and conceptual nature of their output. Linking the three is an interest in concealment and revelation, chaos and control, the interpretation and function of line and an obsessive nature to their artistic production. This exhibition will concentrate on their use of line to explore both shared and disparate interests.

Line is a rich metaphor for the artist. It denotes not only boundary, edge or contour, but is an agent for location, energy, and growth. It is literally movement and change - life itself. Lance Esplund

Historically, the idea of line is seen as "an identifiable path created by a point moving in space. It is one-dimensional and can vary in width, direction, and length. Lines often define the edges of a form. Lines can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, straight or curved, thick or thin. They lead your eye around the composition and can communicate information through their character and direction." The work of Chabannes, Mazza and Nahon can certainly be viewed as part of this rich tradition, however, like many artists of the past few decades; they have subjected the accepted concept of line to a critical examination of idea and expanded its form. In her recent paintings Chabannes continues to explore "limitless notions of identity" through the use of the unconscious and automatic drawing technique (inspired by the Surrealist idea of the hand moving randomly, freed from rational control). However as she has "...engaged in deeper research on fewer specific aspects of our identity, I became profoundly drawn to extreme fusional relationships that exhaust the sense of individuality." Focusing on couples where this fusion has become subject matter for their work, Chabannes obsessively transfers graphite line over and over onto gessoed panel until the simple gesture becomes a chaotic, disjointed and almost decipherable mass of energy and tension where two become one. In this sense, Chabannes's line obscures rather than illuminates. For Mazza, on first viewing, her line is quite literal, the reproduction of lines of text. However, in her small-scale, exquisitely rendered paintings Mazza, who has "always privileged written above visual language for its precision," paints within a realist tradition. "I enjoy the disjunction of resisting or thwarting literal expectations: my paintings always give back something other than that which would be offered by the object in person or its photographic likeness. What realism allows me to do is feign reality, to imply truths, and to lie." In this sense, Mazza's line, like that of Chabannes, obscures and complicates rather than reveals. In her sculptures, Nahon takes the line off the paper/canvas and pushes it into real space thus challenging its historical definition and turning the line into a physical object. Like the others, chaos plays a role, but for Nahon, line is a metaphor for chaos becoming balance; trying to achieving equilibrium in an imperfect world. "Through my sculptures, I explore the bond between physical and spiritual constituents within our environment and between generations. I attempt to push the limits of knowledge and perception and express how solitude can become ethereal and even vanish when shared with others. My sculptures and drawings create a space for these considerations, through delicate use of line, color and balance."

Media

• Drawing
• Sculpture

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