New Work : Jessica Stockholder, John McEnroe, Jae Ko,
Derrick Velasquez, Wendi Harford, Terry Maker, Linda
Fleming, Judy Pfaff, Katy Stone and Blake Haygood

EXHIBITION NOTES

New Work : Jessica Stockholder, John McEnroe, Jae Ko, Derrick Velasquez, Wendi Harford, Terry Maker, Linda Fleming, Judy Pfaff, Katy Stone and Blake Haygood
Jun 9 – Jul 16, 2011

Robischon Gallery presents sculpture, painting and works on paper from Jessica Stockholder, John McEnroe, Jae Ko, Derrick Velasquez, Wendi Harford, Terry Maker, Linda Fleming, Judy Pfaff, Katy Stone and Blake Haygood. Each artist offers a personal interpretation of abstraction – some through a distillation of essential forms; others through conceptual innovation or unconventional material.

A large wall-mounted sculpture from Linda Fleming in illuminating chrome is an expansive and environment-altering pairing of organic and geometric structure. Fleming's intricate maquettes, such as Portent, are featured in "Linda Fleming: Modeling the Universe" at the Nevada Art Museum July 2 ・November 6, 2011. Katy Stone's intricate, brightly-colored or mirrored wall sculptures reference her large-scale installations and remain rooted in the natural world. The elegant twisted, glue and paper forms of Jae Ko, inspired by weather-worn, coastal bristlecone pines, achieve technical and thematic resonance; a compelling relationship between idea and medium. Jessica Stockholder references antecedents of American abstraction while utilizing a kind of modern day cultural fabric of domestic objects and easily-obtained cheap, plastic goods reflective of consumerist desires. Three of Judy Pfaff's exuberant "Year of the Dog" multi- process prints layer printed and folded Japanese paper into large formats with the artist's singular take on nature-based forms. Following the success of his recognized Denver Art Museum exhibition, John McEnroe's translucent vinyl sheeting series traverses the boundaries between painting and his better-known sculptural forms that cast colorful shadows from the folded polyurethane. Terry Maker presents a coiled resin and jawbreaker work that exemplifies her inimitable amalgamate-and-slice process with boundary-stretching materials. Derrick Velasquez furthers his work with stacked strips of layered vinyl in curvilinear forms over wood that refer to book binding. In accompanying photographs, a performative aspect to his work is exhibited as the artist covers himself in sheets of his primary material. Wendi Harford's equally colorful striped canvases reveal a drip at the canvas edge affirming the artist's willingness to allow the paint to follow its own path down the canvas surface. In contrast to his cheerful candy-colored palette, Blake Haygood's glossy-surfaced paintings of surreal discombobulating structures hint at a world gone awry.