Double Vision

Double Vision features works by six international artists– Samantha Bittman (New York), Manor Grunewald (Ghent), Tony Marsh (Long Beach), Rafaël Rozendaal (New York), Joshua Saunders (Los Angeles) and Michael Staniak (Melbourne)– whose practices encompass special skills that transform ordinary materials into something extraordinary. In this way, each artist in Double Vision practices his or her own version of alchemy, transforming yarn, clay or paint into something far more refined, precious and mysterious.

Samantha Bittman’s works are comprised of acrylic paint on portions of intricately patterned weavings that she creates on a loom and then stretches like a typical painting. The image continues onto the edges yielding a three-dimensional painting with a complicated composition that is slightly torqued from being stretched.

Manor Grunewald uses all the functions on photocopying machines (crop, enlarge, zoom) to manipulate found images from art books. He transfers the images to canvas and paints over it. With hints of its origin visible, the final work is minimal and restrained despite its complicated origin.

Tony Marsh’s ceramic vessels are created through repeated glazing, sculpting and firing. While they appear to be delicate, dangerous, accidental and fragile, they actually are strong, intentional and solid. Forged by fire, his forms and surfaces transcend their origin as humble earthen clay and glaze.

Rafaël Rozendaal’s new Jacquard weavings are based on the “abstract browsing” plugin he created to view any website as an abstract composition. He hunts for “anti-compositions,” those he believes no one would have created on their own. Whenever he finds one that he likes, he takes a screenshot—he has saved thousands of them–and for this exhibition, he narrowed the field to produce three as weavings.

In this way, Rozendaal transforms ordinary websites into magic carpets of unexpected composition and color.Joshua Saunders’ large-scale monochrome paintings interact in unexpected and subtle ways with light. Each consists of automotive paint on aluminum panels with crisscrossing nylon straps and stainless steel bolts. Saunders creates the lustrous surfaces by applying up to twenty layers of automotive paint. As with all his works, he uses industrial materials and processes to create optically compelling compositions.Michael Staniak’s new paintings seamlessly combine attributes of analog and digital processes. Although created by hand, the paintings bear an uncanny resemblance to flat digital prints. Indeed, one must view the works up close to perceive any texture or depth, and as such, they behave like contemporary trompe l’oeil paintings that baffle the senses. In a departure from the past, Staniak has added iron oxide and marble dust to the works to achieve new graphic effects.