Reviews

Pattern Power, Chaos and Quiet

March 31, 2018

Kathleen Cullen

There are little gems to be taken away from “Pattern, Power, Chaos and Quiet,” a show featuring the challenging work of eight very different artists. Curator D. Dominick Lombardi has responded to the idea of landscapes as an ongoing internalization of the idea of nature and an engagement with nature with art as its portal. If art constructs a world, Lombardi’s installation is a way of putting together a scene from that world…it is a fantastic palette and inspiration providing us with an in-depth look at choice artists, their use of various techniques, and how that gives way to drama and harmony.As the curator states in his introduction: “historically, artists such as the impressionists or the Hudson River School had been united by a common time and place” (such as Paris in the 1920s and America in the late 19th century, have frequently congregated to debate cultural beliefs, concerns, and approaches to art making — such artists have used their work as a mechanism with which to question the culture of their times. Within the myriad fringe cultures of today, artists more than ever tend to generate their own societal realities and microcosms in an attempt to transcend the individual. Collectively, the artists in this exhibit remain part of this continuum, while simultaneously pushing the envelope of previous artistic movements. Here, you will find everything from fresh perspectives and appropriations of traditional mediums. Unconfined by a single medium, these artists embrace everything from photography and drawing, to sculpture, painting, and almost any possible combination therein. What unifies them is neither a literal theme nor common medium, but rather a sensibility that acknowledges, questions, and deconstructs (if not jettisons) tradition in favor of the more unorthodox and imaginative. Striving to avoid the regurgitation of their own ideas, this group of artists boldly pushes boundaries through its ambition of perpetual transformation.

…we have the deeply felt paintings of Susan Sommer, which borders on a kind of transcendalism. Sommer observes and remarks on her theatrical ambitions or invitation to dance in these works. Expression of the artist sets up an ambiguous depth of field, presenting the viewer with infinity — the various colored geometric square overlaid upon a loosely painted ground. They are mind-blowing and sophisticated works: enjoyable and technically accomplished. Their mystery and subdued self-awareness are the perfect chaser for the exhibition. The infinitesimal vastness of space and the complex beauty of nature are represented simultaneously. Sommer’s carefully chosen blocks of color creating radiantly abstract landscapes.

Kathleen Cullen

Ms. Cullen is a media consultant, art advisor and art dealer with 30 years art market experience. She has held positions with Viart, Vice-President of corporate sales for eyestorm, and continues to advise both private and corporate collections. She has curated the Chubb collection and Virgin Airlines terminals in London. She is presently a director of art and design for Galerie Magazine and Publisher of Modern Painters Magazine.