FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2012
Bridgette Mayer Gallery announces its fourth exhibition of 2012:
A combined show by artists Neil Anderson and Leslie Wayne
In the Vault: Matthew Fischer
Neil Anderson & Leslie Wayne: New Works will be on view May 2 – 26, 2012,
with an opening reception Friday, May 4th 6:00 – 8:30 PM.
PHILADELPHIA (Mar. 22, 2012) – Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to present its first two person exhibition of distinguished contemporary abstract painter Neil Anderson and internationally acclaimed winner of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting, Leslie Wayne. “New Works” will be on view from May 2 – 26, 2012. The exhibition will feature some of their most prominent recent works.
Predominantly concerned with the flatness of the picture plane, Neil Anderson uses nonrepresentational formal expression as a means for intuitive improvisation during his painting process. Beginning by photographing random segments of organic objects and projecting them onto the canvas, Anderson then applies color to the fragmented web of outlined shapes in a series of continually refined layers. His large works, which are often comprised of two joined canvases with a center divide, draw viewers’ attention to the flatness of the medium. Through their two-dimensionality, the colors and the forms they create become the subject of the works. On his theory of color in his works, Neil Anderson states, “While each color has its own mass and density, that equality is always modified by the circumstance. For me colors have physical reality, which is structural rather than decorative.”
Much like Anderson, Leslie Wayne believes in the corporal nature of color. Blurring the boundary lines between painting and sculpture, Wayne combines the two practices by slicing, folding, scraping, manipulating, and sculpting layers of paint onto small-scale canvases to create three-dimensional surfaces. Unlike most sculptors who paint the forms’ surfaces after they have been shaped, Wayne transforms the paint itself into a sculptural medium. Viewers watch as the vibrantly colored masses, folds, and ribbons of paint appear to experience the forces of geology firsthand. Engaging viewers with the physicality of her artistic process, Wayne manipulates the medium to resemble the natural phenomena of flowing lava and stratified rock formations, evoking a visceral sense of compression and movement. On the importance of this malleable materiality in her pieces, Wayne states, “It’s analogous to the physical process of the natural world, in which material is pushed under pressure. I try to give the paintings that same sense of physical inevitability.”
Neil Anderson has shown his works at a number of spaces including Fischbach Galery (New York, NY), Center Gallery (Lewisburg, PA), Gettysburg College Art Gallery (Gettysburg, PA), Michelson Gallery (Washington, DC), Larry Becker Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), and World House Gallery (New York, NY) among many others. He has been featured in various printed publication including The New York Times, Arts Magazine, ARTnews, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Weekly Press. Anderson currently lives and works in Lewisburg, PA.
Leslie Wayne received her BFA in sculpture from Parsons School of Design and her MFA in painting from University of California, Santa Barbara. Her works have been featured in solo exhibitions at a number of galleries internationally including Jack Shainman Gallery (New York, NY), Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (Charleston, SC), Galerie Doris Wullkopf (Darmstadt, Germany), L.A. Louver Gallery (Venice, CA), Byron Cohen Gallery (Kansas City, MO), Haines Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Galeria Leyendecker (Santa Cruz de Tenerif, Spain), Galerie Bugdahn and Kaimer (Dusseldorf, Germany). Wayne has also exhibited pieces at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY) and the New Museum for Contemporary Art (New York, NY). She has received the Buhl Foundation Award for abstract photography and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation artist’s grant. The artist currently lives and works in New York.
“In the Vault” - Matthew Fischer: Past the Brim of My Hat
In addition, recent works by New York-based painter Matthew Fischer will be on display in the vault room. As with the aforementioned featured artists, Fischer too uses natural phenomena and atmospheres as inspiration for his colorful, abstracted imagery. Matthew Fischer received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad including: Tilton Gallery (New York, NY), Chapelle St. Jacques (Vendome, France), Aspen Art Museum (Aspen, CO), and Miriam D. Wallach Gallery (New York, NY).
Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. & by appointment. For additional information please contact t: 215 413 8893 e: bmayer@bridgettemayergallery.com
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