Pattern. Arrangement. Structure. Formation. The five artists in this exhibition share kindred approaches to these crucial elements of art and design.
By employing systems of highly ordered compositions that are simultaneously complex and accessible, their formations of layers, tensions, and balance are created with unabashed palettes, scale, and surprise.
The exhibition features works by Mike Childs, Mark McLeod, Luca Molnar, Cheryl Prisco, and Jane Sangerman.
After a childhood in Toronto, Mike Childs moved to New York in 1995 and has been working on his patterned architecturally based abstractions ever since. The constantly changing urban environment and how humans negotiate this space is of main concern to Childs and continually informs his work. Influences of urban icons such as old bridges, crumbling walls, graffiti art and the signage of the south Bronx have began to seep into his work.
Mark Mcleod is an Associate Professor of Art at Middle Tennessee State University currently living and working near Nashville. He’s been in numerous exhibitions and has organized on campus artist residencies for the past 6 years. Most of his work deals with issues of memory, with some forays into systems of power and identity.
Luca Molnar paints fractured space, pitting continents of pattern against one another as a mirror for societal structure. Her recent paintings derive from maps of politically charged and historically rich places, both real or imagined. The patterns she uses refer to specific memories and histories, drawing from embroidery, quilts and other textiles, wallpaper, and tile. Dr. Molnar is captivated by our everyday encounters with pattern in spaces like bathrooms and kitchens, the centers of care for the body and the often-invisible labor of women.
Cheryl Prisco is addicted to color and pattern, drawn to irreverence and visual dissonance. In place of paint and brush I cut, color, and shape wood elements, creating abstract low relief assemblages. The process of my work, the shaping and fitting, the painting and placement of multiple pieces, is the physical manifestation of rumination. My feelings, attitudes, and concerns are visually recorded in color and composition. Each assemblage is a rumination, a story, one in the making and one in the viewing.
The concept of “above and below” is the skeleton upon which Jane Sangerman’s current work functions. It provides the structure, or perhaps arena, in which her ideas and mark making occur. Jane presents two diametrically opposed spaces hinged vertically. The upper portion explores the metaphysical, the imaginary, divine, dreamworld in which she searches to find answers. The lower segment explores the physical realm, the “close up”, man-made world crumbling before us.
Formation will remain on display through November 6, 2021. Spartanburg Art Museum is currently open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10am to 5pm; Thursday from 10am to 7pm; and on Saturday from 11am to 4pm. General admission is free.
Please visit www.spartanburgartmuseum.org for additional information.
This exhibition is generously sponsored by Davis + Walker Barnes, Alice + Ty Dawson, Leah Kent + Mici Fluegge, Misti + Kevin Hudson, Susu + George Dean Johnson, Jr., Leigh Ann + Ryan Langley, Vicki + Tom Nederostek, and Margaret + George Nixon.
The artist biographies were provided through their respective websites.