Brooklyn, NY, February 1st, 2015 – ART 3 is pleased to announce the exhibition BREAK GROUND, with works by four artists who have each
developed a personal approach to painting as a structural geometry, and with it the potential for exploring both two and three-dimensional
space. Employing paint and formats that can be considered traditional, these artists have developed devices and vocabularies, including
geometric, textual, architectonic and illusionary, that suggest an evolving, elusive subject matter and content in their work. The concept of
breaking ground refers to both the conceptual and physical aspects of their endeavors.
ART 3 has conceived this exhibition as a dialogue between the paired artists, an opportunity for the viewer to explore the connections and
variations in their approaches to image making, composition, and execution. In the conversation or dialogue between Joe Arnheim and
Marjorie Welish, there is a back and forth between Arnheim’s layered and often elusive, multi-lingual text and sculptural assemblage, and
Welish’s grids, that disturb the structural order of things through dislocation, reversal, magnification, condensation, breaks, or
foregrounding. Both artists are immersed in a process of layering, with materials and image, to suggest an elusory space that is in motion
and transition. In Arnheim’s hand-painted text, the translucent layering and language variety makes comprehending his work that much
more of a challenge. Both engage the viewer to read, interpret or translate their work, while offering a conceptual clarity that reduces any
necessity of solving or interpreting the image as something of a non sequitur.
With the paintings of Richard Schur and Judith Seligson, there is an underlying geometric, floor-plan structure that is evolving, and at the
same time, having an overall functional clarity. The exploratory methods of these paired artists includes both color and light, often with
unexpected, for the viewer, results. The dialogue comes with the method with which they define or delineate space. Schur employs
layering, bright, luminous color to maintain an overall sense of the grid in flux or transition. Seligson uses the suggestion of transparency
and the diagonal line or shadow to suggest a space or architecture either emerging or hovering just below the surface. The conversation
between these two artist’s geometric formats is reminiscent of the theoretical counterpoint between Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg,
specifically the use of the horizontal and/or the diagonal in painted space.
The work of these four painters once again engages textual abstraction or takes up the challenge of geometric abstraction, and the still
immersive focus within the discipline of painting in contemporary art. It also confirms that there are, and continue to be, issues in painting
that keep it vital and timely within the artistic dialogue of the early 21st century.
Please contact the gallery for further information. ART 3 gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 12 to 6 pm, and Sunday 1 – 5 pm, and by
appointment.
ABOUT ART 3
ART 3 opened in Bushwick in May 2014 near Luhring Augustine, established in February 2014 by Silas Shabelewska, formerly of Haunch of
Venison (Christie’s) and Helly Nahmad Gallery NY.
Detailed information: art-3gallery.com and ARTSY
Please contact ART 3 info@art-3gallery.com for inquiries, images and interview requests.
LISTINGS:
What: BREAK GROUND: Joe AMRHEIN-Marjorie WELISH; Richard SCHUR-Judith SELIGSON
When: February 17 – March 20, 2016, Wed-Sun 12-6
Opening: Wednesday, February 17, 6-9 PM
Where: ART 3 Gallery, 109 Ingraham Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Transportation: L train to Morgan Avenue; front of the train; walk two blocks
More information: www.art-3gallery.com