Glow
By Elyce Abrams
4 September – 29 September, 2007
Opening Reception with the Artist
First Friday, September 7th, 6 - 8:30 pm
The Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to present gallery artist Elyce Abrams’ second solo exhibition. "Glow" will feature approximately fifteen oil on wood paintings, with sizes ranging from 16" x 16" to 34" x 70".
Abrams' new exhibit explores the relationship between light and experience, creating abstract landscapes based on the artist’s reaction to space, form, and identity. Her creative process is intuitive, capturing the spontaneity of an environment in flux.
Abrams applies multiple layers of acrylic paint to wooden panels. Each panel is sanded to reveal forms bristling with kinetic energy, as if a flash burned fleeting images onto its surface. Vertical columns in the foreground of Abrams’ work lend weight and dimension, both obstructing and providing a visual frame of reference to the landscapes. The emergence and regression of radiance reflect the artist’s feelings of conflict, ruin, and return of everyday life.
Also featured is a sound installation by composer Matthew Levy. Levy electronically manipulates a previously composed saxophone quartet, “Lament”, to respond to the collection, employing an ostinato (recurring musical figure) to echo the repetition of visual patterns and heighten the emotional content of Abrams’ paintings. The color and composition in Abrams' paintings, in turn, react to the somber mood of the music. Paired together, Abrams and Levy present a dynamic exhibition that gives the viewer freedom to explore and interpret the work.
Elyce Abrams was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1973. She has received her BFA with a concentration in painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, her BA at Tufts University in Medford, MA, her Art Education PA Teaching Certification from Moore College of Art and Design, and her MFA at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA in 2004. Abrams’ work was recently selected by Village Voice Senior Art Critic Jerry Salz for the prestigious 2007 Miami University Young Painters Competition. Salz selected her work along with nine other painters as he felt it “visually responds to painting at this time in the 21st century.” Abrams has also been featured in group shows at: Pennsylvania 2006 State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA, Tierney Communications, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA, Witaker Center of Art & Science, Harrisburg, PA, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA/New Hope, PA.
Matthew Levy is a founding member of the PRISM Saxophone Quartet. Levy has performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, and as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra. He has composed works for orchestra, choir, musical theater, dance, jazz and electronic music ensembles. Winner of a fellowship in composition from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, his music has been broadcasted on: NPR’s “Performance Today" from Washington, DC; WQRS's "Around Town" from Detroit; WQXR's "The Listening Room" from New York City; WMFT's "Dame Myra Hess Series" from Chicago; CBC and "Voice of America." He has scored four motion pictures, including PBS's "Diary of a City Priest" and may be heard on Koch International, CRI, Innova, Deutsche Grammophon, Grammavision, and Tzadik. He serves as director of the Philadelphia Music Project, an Artistic Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
###