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Show Dates: January 5 – January 25, 2024

Westbeth Gallery is pleased to launch its 2024 season with “Beyond the Surface: Constructing Destruction.” Curated by Vida Geranmayeh and Daniel G. Hill, this exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists who challenge and expand the boundaries of painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Featuring Artists:
Gail Biederman, Lily de Bont, Daniel G. Hill, Kathleen Kucka, Steven Millar, Gelah Penn, David Rhodes, Mary Schiliro, Howard Schwartzberg, Jan Maarten Voskuil

“Beyond the Surface: Constructing Destruction” navigates the nuanced space between creation and disruption, with a focus on transformative techniques and the integral role of materials in the creative process. The exhibition re-contextualizes the traditional mediums of painting and sculpture, as each artist explores the dynamic interplay of contrasting transformations. In an era marked by global challenges, the exhibition positions art as a platform for dialogue and positive change. It confronts self-censorship, extends the reach of artistic expression, and encourages viewers to investigate uncharted territories. By reexamining the familiar, these artists discover new paths within established genres, inspiring viewers to question and reconsider prevailing artistic notions. The exhibition underscores the importance of mastery of craft in achieving innovation, often leading to an expansion of artistic boundaries.

Gail Biederman utilizes felt and yarn, creating psychogeographic maps in her large-scale installations and intimate works on paper, drawing upon experience and memory.

Lily de Bont radically reimagines the painter’s linen, deconstructing the canvas into loose threads, leading to complex compositions where gravity plays a pivotal role.

Daniel G. Hill explores the physical and metaphorical roles of gravity in art, creating self-reflexive pieces that provoke wonder and contemplation.

Kathleen Kucka uses burning as a transformative technique, exploring rebirth and destruction through a personal language of forms and patterns.

Steven Millar draws inspiration from diverse allusions, from atmospheric phenomena like rainbows to symbolic objects such as memorial stones. Merging the handmade, fabricated, and found, his pieces cultivate unique forms of expression.

Gelah Penn’s site-responsive installations and wall constructions blur the lines between drawing and sculpture, orchestrating events of perceptual incident and psychological unease.

David Rhodes’s paintings feature material brevity, elemental facture and compelling visuality. He uses only black paint on canvas. The complex figure ground configurations and rhythmic pattern are typical.

Mary Schiliro experiments with acrylic paint and Mylar, exploring the tangible versus the ephemeral as metaphors for the human condition. Her work expands the boundaries of painting and presents new possibilities for presentation.

Howard Schwartzberg uniquely employs paint and canvas to craft shapes, pushing beyond traditional painting boundaries and exploring the canvas’s multidimensional roles in artistic expression.

Jan Maarten Voskuil stretches painting into the third dimension, cutting and reconstructing canvases into modular forms that blur the lines between painting, sculpture, design, and architecture.

Contact: Vida Geranmayeh (917) 838-1774 vida@gallerygeranmayeh.com

Gallery hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12pm–6pm and by appointment

Closing Event/Artist Reception: Thursday, January 25, 2024, 5-7pm

Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune Street, New York, NY 10014 www.westbeth.org