Vagary of Abstraction

Vagary of Abstraction
Rachel Beach, Lisa Beck, Nate Ethier and Dan Walsh
June 23 – July 29, 2017 Opening; Friday June 23, 6-8 pm

LMAKgallery is pleased to present our summer group show Vagary of Abstraction, with the works of Rachel Beach, Lisa Beck, Nate Ethier and Dan Walsh. Playing on the notions of the unexpected and inexplicable change, this exhibit looks at abstraction through this filter and jostles the usual expectation of the term. Having four forces of independent image making, these artists allow for a combination of humor, transcendence, formalism, and quirk to not just twist one’s preconception of abstraction, but to do so with a joy of looking.

Rachel Beach’s practice comes out of sculpture: constructed wood forms with plaster, aluminum and resin elements that relate to the figure, and most recently, photographs of hands painted with analogous forms. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions and galleries in the United States and Canada including Blackston, NY, the Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK; Postmasters, New York, NY; Lennon Weinberg, New York, NY; Mixed Greens, New York, NY; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art and MSVU Art Gallery in Canada and most recently the Visual Art Center of New Jersey in Summit.

Lisa Beck’s work creates a synergy, fusing not just the combination of various mediums and modes, including painting, sculpture and installation, but also the notions that follow each method. She often integrates opposing sensations, such as the positive and the negative, and organized structure and randomness. The wide range of materials (paint, wood, mylar mirror, metal, plastic, etc) she uses allows her to allude to the paradoxical nature of her pieces. Her work has been shown at Galerie Samy Abraham, Paris; Anton Kern Gallery, NY; Circuit, Switzerland; La Salle de Bains, Lyon; Musee de’ L’art Modern, et Contemporain, Geneve; Centre d’art Conemporain Meymac, France; Jack Tilton Gallery, NY; Nature Morte Gallery, NY; American Fine Art, NY; and has been represented by Hudson’s Feature Gallery since its inception.

Nate Ethier draws on traditions of twentieth century formalism and hard-edge abstraction, with flamboyant geometric concepts celebrating both the bucolic and the post-industrial world. He creates compositions that allow for the optical emphasis to alternate and reverberate with unequivocal intensity and grace. The mechanics of Ethier’s paintings function as visual motion machines, being both perpetual and philosophical. Ethier’s work has been shown at Minus Space, NY; Geoffery Young Gallery, MA; Nancy Margois Gallery, NY; The Boiler/Pierogi Gallery, NY; Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY; Boston University Gallery, MA; Georgia Southern Univeristy, GA. Ethier is a recipient of Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Award and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant.

Dan Walsh has been working from a repertoire of elemental forms, with each painting focusing on particular concentric shapes, repeated or nested motifs, optical effects created by the overlay of translucent color strokes, and modulated color fields. The series on view, Cycle, translates specific referents into Walsh’s own playful, yet rigorous visual language. Walsh’s work is in public collections around the world, including the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; MAMCO, Geneva; the MoMA, New York; the RISD Museum, Providence; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He has been exhibited at MoMA’s P.S.1, the New Museum, NY, the Centre National d’Art Contemporain in Nice, la Synagogue de Delme, France, CCNOA (Art + Architecture) in Brussels, and the Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz.