Rhonda Schaller Studio

Projects Room Gallery 2
Current Abstractions - curated project series

Restful Alertness - Abstract Art Today
Maya Gatewood, Dipesh Parmar, Olivia Lundberg, Leslie Shellow, Andrzej Michael Karwacki, John R. Math, Kevin Mertens, Mehmet Ayanoglu, Julie Simon, Randee Silv, Cindy Mason, Ellen Hackl Fagan, Georgina Vinsun, Jessica Blank, Catherine Leach, Annette Lieberman, Chris Simmons, Linda Dubin Garfield, Laurie Joan Aron, Mark Wojcik

The great variety within contemporary abstract art has a commonality of inspiration through a diversity of content. Though at times obscure to the naked eye, the genesis of gesture, intuited line, concrete shape, and intelligent movement flows from both intellectualized mind and trance filled spirit, both equal parameters within abstract art today. Each of the artists chosen for this curated project present their voice within this context. We are delighted to present this comparison and overview of abstraction in contemporary art.

Rhonda Schaller

A common thread runs through all of my drawings – a focus, or several points, of energy in space. Establishing where the vortex will materialize is my primary objective. Thereafter, emerges visualization of various forms flowing in and/or out of it, creating a final image the vortex either has discharged or is consuming. (MG)

My paintings are based around the use of color, volume, light and space within an architectural context, creating structures and hybrids of structures through dispersal, fusion, collisions and juxtapositions to extend the visual dynamics to create vast, endless areas of space and forms. (DP)

Looking is charged with connections we make from past images. My work investigates color’s ability to persuade and entice, and the false narratives we create through this experience …(OL)

Images overlap, some showing through clearly, while others lay beneath and peek through as memories suggesting an inevitable and uncontrollable change. Quick gesture marks allow the paint to follow a path that is not predetermined leaving open the possibility for successful accidental discoveries, while slow intentional marks reflect the importance of concentration and observation of details. (LS)

As an artist, is it I who defines painting or is it painting that defines me? My process begins in silence, for silence is a soul of beauty. From it, the source of creativity begins to flow. To discover my very own nature and the invisible fabric that I am made of, I allow paint to become my external means of expression. (AMK)

I create what I call “Focus Images” which depicts the essence of a natural object or place. This essence may be a distinguishable element of an object or an overall feeling that one would derive from being subjected to that particular focus. (JRM)

Due to our limited senses, we people don't know much about "reality" and everyday events usually seem chaotic and random. Occasionally, however, the nature of existence appears momentarily clear. Something seems to be shining through what is typically opaque and various points in time seem to come into alignment. (KM)

These drawings and paintings are inspired by “Tugra”. Tugra is the symbol of the Ottoman Sultan’s authority. It was affixed to all official documents, fermans, correspondence and coins during his reign. Each sultan chose his personal tugra immediately after his accession and used it throughout his life. Certainly there are no more sultans in Istanbul, but their heritage is large and looming in me. (MA)

I can’t seem to use a camera for its intended purpose. In film, I intentionally overexposed and slowed down movement of ordinary scenes so the viewer is forced to look at the shot, frame by frame, eradicating its association from reality. In still photography, I intentionally move and jerk the camera creating movement in what otherwise is a static medium. (JS)

These works, which I draft through free association, rely on the structure inherent in my creativity, recording imagined relationships of conceptual form and conversations with myself. The conversations sustain these constructed places with emotion and memory. (CM)

Weaving threads from pop music, decorative art, complexity theory, Jungian psychology and ritualized spiritual practices, my abstract paintings connect color and texture to sound. Inviting the accidental, through pours and mixing unlike materials, I often flip the painting over, letting gravity move the paint while the work dries. (EHF)

There are two sides to the work I produce. I’m certainly interested in the idea of spontaneity and whether any art claiming to be spontaneous is truly so. As such, all of my current work contains spontaneous elements; these are more prominent in my drawings and layered over with delicate veils of paint in my paintings. It’s often as if I let myself go completely for a few seconds, scribbling away, and then return to correct the ‘damage’. I never completely cover up these odd expressions of emotion; just delicately shroud them under shimmering layers of varnish-rich oil paint. (GV)

My aim is to capture the beauty I see in real life, in sometimes humble things, so I don't change my images in any way… the common denominator being color and texture. (JB)

Always, I have been pulled to the outside. If I can’t be physically outside, I must look outside. Views are patterns. …. but also enigmatic. These are everyday views that capture my attention by appearing in a new light. Colors and shapes, lines and angles describe the territory beyond straightforward. (CL)

After a silent retreat at the Zen Mountain Monastery, I experienced what the Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls called “losing you mind and coming to your senses.” Each day my camera reminds me that what I do as an artist is what I do as a psychoanalyst. I make the time and space to be present in the moment, to let the subjects reveal themselves to me. (AL)

Working with oil sticks has given my surface the tactile diversity, and my strokes the continuous flow, that I need as I paint within those moments before gestures transform themselves into recognizable images, in that space between what's familiar and what’s not yet been encountered, where there's not an apparent boundary, only sensations of infinite possibility. (RS)

For some time, I concentrated on works that were superficially well-composed, but on closer inspection revealed dangerous angles and confusing depths. I worked with reconfiguring patterns in space, and with finding the iconic sublime in abstract renditions that suggested natural forms, and sometimes human ones. (LA)

By creating and exploring the never-ending permutations of light, color, and shape, my work becomes a record and commentary on the power of variety. Working with precise geometry as a guide has created a playground in which I can manipulate and embrace the rigidity of visual constructions. (MW)

My description of my art would be the phrase, "What Do You See?" What is unique about my paintings is that there is more than one picture, meaning, and interpretation inside the painting. I believe that every time you look at my paintings you will always be captivated by what your eyes and spirit visualize. (CS)

I am intrigued by color and pattern of landscapes and of the creative power in life. I am also fascinated by the relationship between nature and the issues of my current life story. Ageing, inevitable, yet depressing, is currently foremost in my mind. Searching in nature for a positive spin, I found beauty and grace in the ageing process or oxidation of steel. Here ageing becomes a subject of fascination and beauty. In the series of work these images come from, I am looking at the natural process of decay. The patterns and colors of decomposition have a beauty of their own. (LDG)

For purchase availability please contact Rhonda Schaller, Gallery Director, Tel 212 967 1338 or info@rhondaschallerchelsea.com.

To return to Current Abstractions – curated project series home page - click here.