• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Newcity Art

Visual Art Culture of Chicago and Beyond

  • Newcity
    • Newcity Network
    • Best of Chicago
  • Art
    • About Newcity Art
    • Featured Exhibitions
    • Breakout Artists
  • Brazil
  • Design
  • Film
  • Lit
  • Music
  • Resto
  • Stage

Review: Abstraction: A Visual Language/Rhona Hoffman Gallery

June 30, 2015 at 9:00 am by Art Editor

by Art Editor
June 30, 2015June 25, 2015Filed under:
  • Painting
  • West Loop
Linnea Gabriella Spransy. "Repeat, Like Nothing Ever Has Been," 2015 acrylic on canvas, 78" x 72"

Linnea Gabriella Spransy. “Repeat, Like Nothing Ever Has Been,” 2015
acrylic on canvas, 78″ x 72″

RECOMMENDED

Aside from the obvious aesthetic concerns of making objects of lasting beauty, the central problem of abstraction has always been one of style and technique. More specifically, it has been the search for a technique that yields and animates an autographic or signature style as unique as the painter’s vision. It’s a lot harder than it sounds: as evidence, witness the cliché-ridden failures of abstract painting’s supposed “comeback” visible at any given art fair.

All the more reason then to celebrate the seven artists whose works comprise the concentrated, diverse and yet seamlessly integrated “Abstraction: A Visual Language” at Rhona Hoffman Gallery. That these artists are also women is a fact worth highlighting in its own right, but let’s be clear: these are damn good painters first and foremost who make singular works that defy easy categorization.

Chicago artist Samantha Bittman’s intriguing fusion of surface, support and medium in her hand-woven and painted pieces evoke the virtues of time, labor and patience while cutting to the core of visual experience. The geometric forms in her rust-orange “Untitled” undulate against the dynamic vibrations of the digitally printed wallpaper “Interlacements.” Acting as pitch-perfect counterpoint to these visual acrobatics are the clarity and restraint of Nancy Haynes’ meditatively sparse abstractions.

Magalie Guérin. "Untitled (hat-beast)," 2015 oil on canvas, 20" x 16"

Magalie Guérin. “Untitled (hat-beast),” 2015
oil on canvas, 20″ x 16″

Jackie Saccoccio and Linnea Gabriella Spransy both employ the productive powers of process and limitation in their studio practice to generate large-scale works replete with a feeling of looseness and spontaneity. In a similar vein, the rapidly scrapped and squeegeed arabesques of Kika Karadi’s untitled abstraction coaxes the moody atmospherics of film noir from the utter simplicity of black and white. Finally, Raychael Stein and Magalie Guérin contribute intimately sized paintings whose curious juxtapositions of touch, texture and shape are initially perplexing, yielding their charms only after sustained engagement. Thoughtfully curated, “Abstraction: A Visual Language” is a stimulating dialogue of difference that adds new words to an established lexicon. (Alan Pocaro)

Through July 31 at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 118 North Peoria.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Google

Related

Tagged:
  • Jackie Saccoccio
  • Kika Karadi
  • Linnea Gabriella Spransy
  • Magalie Guerin
  • Raycheal Stein
  • Rhona Hoffman Gallery
  • Samantha Bittman

Post navigation

Previous Post News: Crusade for Art Funds Forthcoming Arts Publication Distributed on CTA Red Line
Next Post Blocks of Art and Stuff: Taking in the Heidelberg Project, East Detroit’s Spectacle of Transformation and Perseverance

Primary Sidebar

Popular Stories

  • This Major Retrospective Asks How "To Paint The Indian"? A Review of Rick Bartow at the Schingoethe Center
    This Major Retrospective Asks How "To Paint The Indian"? A Review of Rick Bartow at the Schingoethe Center
  • Intimate Moves In A Dark Room, Paul Mpagi Sepuya at Document
    Intimate Moves In A Dark Room, Paul Mpagi Sepuya at Document
  • Casting Colorful Spells On A Troll Cult: A Review of Molly Colleen O’Connell at Julius Caesar
    Casting Colorful Spells On A Troll Cult: A Review of Molly Colleen O’Connell at Julius Caesar
  • Brushing Up On Southeast Asia: A Review of  "Asian Perspective: Sixteen Artists From South East Asia" at Galerie Waterton
    Brushing Up On Southeast Asia: A Review of "Asian Perspective: Sixteen Artists From South East Asia" at Galerie Waterton
  • Three Painters, All Women:  A Review of “Kim Piotrowski, Heather Marshall, Nina Rizzo” at Linda Warren Projects
    Three Painters, All Women: A Review of “Kim Piotrowski, Heather Marshall, Nina Rizzo” at Linda Warren Projects

Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2018

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.