Events

Name: UP CLOSE FROM AFAR <br/> Group Exhibition. Plus newly published review
Start: 2024-09-27T13:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-10-20T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Westbeth Gallery

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UP CLOSE FROM AFAR
Group Exhibition. Plus newly published review

September 27, 2024 - October 20, 2024

THE FRONT ROW CENTER REVIEW
Holli Harms Oct 2024
Excerpt
“The Visual Arts Chair/Gallery directors are artists themselves. Valérie Hallier is the current
Visual Arts Chair/Gallery director and she has curated an art exhibit this Fall at Westbeth
Gallery that is awe-inspiring. Entitled “Up Close From Afar,” it is masterful. It is eclectic,
lustrous, thought provoking, and an eye-catching exhibit of art in multiple constructs. Sculptures
using fabric and taxidermy, paintings with elaborate colors and textures and saturated strokes of
black and white hanging by what can only be described as a spider’s web.”

Read the entire review HERE

Click to enlarge

September 27 – October 20, 2024
Curated by Valérie Hallier

Featuring artists:
Khaila Batts, Kelly Boehmer, Nell Breyer, Sandra
Cavanagh, Marie-Chloé Duval, Rina Dweck,
Pauline Galiana, Allan Gorman, Honglei Li
Alex W. Rader

Artist Reception and Opening: Friday, September 27,
2024, 6pm-8pm

Westbeth Gallery is pleased to present this group exhibition featuring selected artists from our 2024 open call and curated by Valérie Hallier, Westbeth current Visual Arts Chair and Gallery Director.

The group show explores eclectic artistic perspectives on our contemporary moment in the West.

Through an array of mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture and installation, artists from Asia, Europe and from within the United States, offer detailed views, up close and afar, from their multicultural perspectives on contemporary existentialism.

Khaila Batts: ”In the realm of contemporary existentialism, my work delves into the individual’s quest for meaning and authenticity, navigating the complexities of existence and identity within the modern context.”

Kelly Boehmer: “I sew soft sculptures that portray a tragic sense of humor, celebrating the hidden beauty I find in anxieties. I find humor in my struggles with social anxiety, and changes in my body, all my attempts to be [comfortable in my own skin]. While the imagery is often grotesque, the flayed and molting creatures symbolize positive change, growth, and transformation.”

Nell Breyer: Nell Breyer is an artist working at the intersection of media, movement and the public domain. She uses mark-making and the moving body to explore how we perceive and understand human movement’s delineation of shared space and calibration of place.

Sandra Cavanagh: Interested in the pairing of form and message, and formal variations on a theme, I sustain a figurative focus in reaction to current and historical narratives including my own. Recent global events have led me to considerations of mortality and loss of innocence in cross generational stories, the usefulness of art’s centuries old regard of myth, foundational stereotypes and the mundane occurrence of violence.

Marie Chloé Duval: My interest in painting is based on a desire to translate my analysis and interpretation of society, building on my academic background studying social issues. By deliberately obstructing some elements and removing others, I leave space for interpretation, suggesting the confusion of the perceptual state we live in, inviting the observers to question their role in the world. Rina Dweck: Rina AC Dweck makes work riddled with juxtapositions. Organic next to synthetic, readymade alongside handmade, real vs. fake, past beside present. Her use of hair as a material signifier tethers her to explorations on identity, femininity, religion, and freedom. Born and bred in New York City, and raised in an immigrant community, Dweck grew up surrounded by lively histories and intense contrast. This upbringing embedded a propensity toward reimagining, and the belief in the beauty of difference as a source of possibility.

Pauline Galiana: My work blends noble and mundane, materials, deconstructing and reconstructing them into hybrid forms. I waste nothing. My processes are both obsessive and meditative, combining meticulous planning and patient execution. My formal compositions, often featuring rigorous grids, reflect instinctive states of mind and reveal meaning through unexpected encounters and the beauty of entropy.

Allan Gorman: ”I’m drawn to the built environment—the spaces we construct, the boundaries we navigate, and the edges where materials and light converge. There’s a mystery and escapism in my world that both obstructs and reflects nature, and in my art I attempt to capture the audacity and ambition of these spaces. I’m fascinated by traces of human evidence left behind in hallways, stairwells, and empty offices.”

Honglei Li: “As Chinese immigrant artists, we strive to create artwork that can make a strong voice for the Asian immigrant community. Our experience as immigrants who struggled at the bottom of American society has informed and shaped our art, which focuses on human suffering and injustice in societies. “

Alex W. Rader: As a third culture individual, discovering the language of painting has been a vital component in her artistic development. Today, she uses painting as a means of expressing the ineffable anxieties around womanhood. The role of representational painting proves to be an effective tool to evoke care, devotion, and time. With this, the theme of home has entered her work, providing new combinations of objects in uneasy domestic interiors.

Contact: Valérie Hallier (718) 414 9889 – westbethgallery@gmail.com – vhallier@gmail.com

Gallery hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 1pm–6pm and by appointment

Closing Events/ Artists talks: Saturday October 19 & Sunday October 20th during Westbeth Open House events.

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

OPENING NIGHT Sept 27, 2024
Click image to start slideshow.