NYAB Event - Heath West “Transparency/Reflection”

Heath West “Transparency/Reflection”

Castor Gallery

This event has ended.

Castor Gallery presents its first curated exhibition, featuring the works of Heath West and Elizabeth Winnel. The ground floor gallery will feature Transparency/Reflection, a solo exhibition of Heath West’s algorithmic paintings that combine digitally-inspired patterns with abstract traditions. Elizabeth Winnel, whose self-portraits take the form of sumptuous, juicy lips, will take over the lower level gallery with Bigmouth, featuring new oversized paintings and a new body of smaller mixed media works called Mirror Kisses.

Trained in Advanced Architectural Design (Columbia GSAPP, 2009) and a working architect, Heath West approaches the picture plane as a convergence between movement, time and perspective. West sees each piece as an opportunity to relate the tactile with the spatial, creating his own language that uses material property based algorithms as point of departure for picture-making. West debunks the traditional approach to the canvas, instead using the frame as a means to control and organize his system of parallels, points, lines and diagonals into a visual equilibrium that the viewer reads as a flood of lush colors, textures and spatial layers.

For Transparency/Reflection West explores the relationship between the picture plane and the many screens that have become our means for consuming information. The constant flicker of screens—on laptops, information kiosks, in airplanes and of course our obsessive checking of our smartphones—have become contemporary references for these pieces; which focus on the color, socio-spatial relationships, and varying optical characteristics that these information displays bring into our daily lives. The multi-media works in Transparency/Reflection heighten the familiar algorithmic patterns that go unnoticed in our daily lives with West’s expert usage of bold color and textural contrasts.