Locks Gallery is pleased to present New Light, a group exhibition featuring gallery artists Neysa Grassi, Ellen Harvey, Warren Rohrer, Pat Steir, Ena Swansea, and Rob Wynne. New Light will be on view April 24 through May 28, 2010. There will be a reception on Friday, May 7th from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
Light - a timeless subject and painterly device used in art throughout the ages, is also a metaphor for renewal, new development, and rediscovery. In the hands of artists, artificial or reflected light becomes a sensory experience and a vital component of the work.
This thematic presentation of six painters and one sculptor offers highly individual approaches to varied meanings of “light”. In the abstract paintings of Neysa Grassi, Warren Rohrer and Pat Steir, shadows and light are often at play in their subtle layering and dense applications of paint.
Ena Swansea draws from daily life in her semi-autobiographical figure and landscape paintings. Her views of New York’s Broadway Avenue hum with the overloaded LED environment.
The conceptual artist Ellen Harvey has long explored optical effects with mirrors and LED lighting. In her new series Ruins are More Beautiful, Harvey invents a lost Romantic forest crafted from hand-edged mirrors.
Rob Wynne’s blown glass sculptures of words and phrases utilize text as the subject. His pieces at first read as signs - but for the viewer, each text triggers memories or koan-like meditations.
