Gallery Y: Zach Taylor, “Everything Forever”
Gallery X: Kim Piotrowski, “Pushing Corners”
Gallery O: Andrew LeMay Cox, “Love Spells”
October 28, 2016 – December 10, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, October 28, 2016, 6-9pm
Artist Remarks: Saturday, November 12, 2-5 pm
Zach Taylor, “Her Voice Collapsed Into An Echo,” 2016, oil on canvas, 24 x 24
Linda Warren Projects is proud to present three exhibitions of new works by: Zach Taylor, “Everything Forever” (Gallery Y), Kim Piotrowski, “Pushing Corners” (Gallery X), and Andrew LeMay Cox, “Love Spells” (Gallery O).
Material process, experimentation, and discipline are the nexus for these three talented painters. The exploration and interplay between sculpture and painting generate distinctive work that is aesthetically and academically compelling. Whether or not the images or materials are recognizable, it is their unique painting styles, application, and technique that encourage the viewer to reconsider the physical and emotional constructs of the work.
In “Everything Forever,” Zach Taylor presents three series of paintings that at first glance may appear incoherent, yet are thoughtfully threaded by an undeniable ghostly sentimental beauty. The conceptual underpinnings of each image or object holds both personal significance and value to the artist, yet simultaneously attempts to generate a universal experience and affinity for the viewer. “By interpreting images through diverse painting techniques and styles, as well as constructing simulations of ordinary objects with paint, the overall body of work functions as documentation of emotion and memory,” Taylor’s paintings and objects evoke contemplation. They challenge notions of originality by borrowing and replicating art historical techniques and theories.
Included in the exhibition is a paper plane constructed from molded paint, which concurrently conjures flashbacks of distant childhood memories yet questions the authenticity of the object as an “art commodity.” However, Taylor’s abstract paintings utilize recognizable painting styles, such as pointillism and hyperrealism, to abstract flickers of memory that feel familiar and universal – a blurred Wilkerson-esque scene at IKEA, reminds us of the mundane and instills a particular sensation of comfort. Yet it is his “dream” paintings that sublimely depict a common curiosity and longing for remembering dreams, our quest to pinpoint a place and time or an emotion that our subconscious recognizes. Taylor successfully exerts the capabilities of material and painting to communicate a deeply personal narrative that is collectively shared. Each singular work from the series was “created as a gesture of honesty through abstracted realism, seeking to illustrate and decipher experiential details of human individuality and uniformity.”
Kim Piotrowski, “There Was Blue,” 2016, acrylic ink and metal leaf on panel, 20 x 16
“Pushing Corners,” presented in Gallery X, will feature new paintings by Kim Piotrowski in which abstraction and reference dance, spar, and harmonize willingly. By creating a controlled chaos, Piotrowski is able to interchange and integrate the assertiveness of mark making while contemplating lines and objects that reference the natural world. Phantomlike landscapes and figures appear and disappear within the paintings. Ambiguous lines and colors push and pull for attention, so much that they wrap around the corners of the paintings, demanding that we peek around and grant them recognition. Piotrowski’s process is as wild as the paintings themselves – “layers of thin ink washes, scrubbed, and manipulated by time and touch, these passages push against the opacity of forms and gestural lines that create a new dynamic within the picture plane.” The stage is set where even the smallest marks have a role. An abstracted symphony of colors and lines that pursue freedom and the flexibility to exist, it is here where Piotrowski finds the excitement of painting.
Using Gallery O for its inaugural solo exhibition, LWP presents “Love Spells,” original works by Andrew LeMay Cox. As part of the exhibition, the artist will include paintings from his Pop-Lore series along with a selection of renditions from influential artists in the canon of art history.
Pop-Lore is a series of paintings that are experimental in their construct and composition. The material and surface at first glance is difficult to comprehend. Their smooth sleek glossy surface is both appealing and disorienting. The “plastic” like material hangs outside the confines of the frame. Oozing down and Dali-like, the paintings themselves transform into sculptural objects. It is here, embedded within this alien material, where we find the painting. The process is tedious and leaves no room for mistakes, a gamble.
LeMay Cox works backwards to start his composition. The figures and landscapes are built from the foreground to the background. Without revealing his material and embedding process, the artist draws from a mirrored practice of traditional painting with each form carefully thought out and each composition examined. Should application and composition fail, the result is trashed. His subject matter is neither utopian nor dystopian, but a collage of naked bodies frolicking in a surreal landscape. These multi-colored beings have no nationality or origins. The attempt is to re-contextualize art historical traditions in painting. “As an artist it’s difficult to look at the canon of art history and find a point where our work fits in,” LeMay Cox says. “Studying the methods and techniques of the past affords an outlet to find an original voice. The ‘unique’ is not born from pure genius but is rather borrowed.”
Andrew LeMay Cox, “Hot Spells,” 2016, ink on canvas, 35 x 42
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Zach Taylor, a Los Angeles based artist, has been featured in several exhibitions across the country including the MAMA Gallery and Los Feliz Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. His work can be found in the corporate collection of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago as well as a part of several private collections throughout the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Zach Taylor received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000 and his MFA from Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida in 2015. This is Taylor’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.
Kim Piotrowski, a Chicago based artist, received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has continued showing in both group and solo exhibitions since 1991. Most recently her work has been featured at Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta, GA, Grolle:Pass:Projects in Wuppertal, Germany and Gallery oqbo in Berlin Germany. Piotrowski has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognition including the Illinois Arts Council Visual Artist Grant, Artadia Grant and most recently the Sustainable Arts Foundation amongst many others. She has also been artist in residence at Yaddo, Ragdale and Oxbow. This is Piotrowski’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.
Andrew LeMay Cox is an emerging artist from Chicago. He has been featured in several venues across the area, including Filtered Warehouse, Boiler Room and The Squeeze. His work was also featured at the Sullivan Galleries at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his BFA in 2011. LeMay Cox currently resides in Chicago and this is his first solo exhibition with Linda Warren Projects.