Neysa Grassi

February 15, 2006, Philadelphia, PA - Locks Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Philadelphia-based artist Neysa Grassi, from April 7 through May 13, 2006. The opening reception will be held Friday, April 7th from 5:30-7:30pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

Since the 1990’s, Grassi has continually pursued an abstraction based on subtly manipulated surfaces - often thickened through impasto and layering. Her intricate surfaces - enhanced by scraping, rubbing and abrading - accentuate the shadowy light seemingly projected by the paintings themselves. The exhibit  's title refers to the artist  's studio - affectionately known as the cathedral and built for a prominent Matisse and Cezanne collector on Philadelphia  's Main Line in the 1920s.

Grassi’s newest paintings emerge charred and embedded with a deep emotion - triggering sensory responses about the body and nature. Describing Grassi’s paintings, Corcoran Gallery of Art curator Jonathan Binstock writes, “Each work has the ability to suggest an alchemical reaction... Grassi’s surfaces are scrims - scrims for our hazy approximations of the nature of the medium - organic membranes that sustain a life beneath them.”

Grassi, a recipient of a Pew Fellowship, has had solo exhibitions at several museums, including the Pensacola Art Museum, the Susquehanna Art Museum and the Demuth Foundation. Since 1990 the artist has had over 18 one-person exhibitions in galleries in Philadelphia and New York. Grassi teaches at Moore College of Art and Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.