The Space Between

It is in the quiet, the emptiness and the pause, where we can find serenity, balance and wholeness of the mind. In this exhibition, Walker Fine Art explores the physical manifestation of visual meditation. As the featured artists in The Space Between balance the negative space in their artistic compositions, a meditative practice also forms. It is within this tranquil search, the space between can reveal its harmonious power.

MEAGEN SVENDSEN’s installation will examine what is essential in nature, reflecting both a deep concern and a celebration of the interconnecting stories of wildlife and humanity. In questioning the binary perception of wildlife as exotic and precious versus common and worthless, Svendsen hopes to inspire a broader definition of “the wild” to include urban and suburban settings. By presenting exotic animals alongside that of more common species, she engages the viewer in a dialogue about the definition of wildlife, and what it means to have a personal relationship with nature in one’s daily life.
Inspired by fire, ANGELA BELOIAN’s paintings begin with a black panel, upon which she draws botanical forms, evoking the silvery lines of white ash on a burning piece of wood. Repetitive lines of color emanate from the subject, suggesting a radiance or internal glow, to remind us of the potential energy that exists in all living things.
KARIN SCHMINKE’s artwork is inspired by the natural world; in this exhibition, she is specifically concerned with life cycles. The roles of time, resiliency and consistency in the natural world are featured. The forms are purposefully abstracted to enhance contemplation, while facilitating themes of absence, persistence and correspondence. Working from inspiration in her garden, she selects parts to represent the whole. This reductive process allows her to create areas of focus along with areas of rest: the negative (empty) spaces.
The theory of fractal geometry: infinite layers of self-similar shapes repeated in every living thing, holds an endless fascination for ALLISON SVOBODA. Working intuitively through thousands of brushstrokes to create hundreds of small paintings, she collates the work to find intriguing compositions. When the composition is complete, each viewer has their own experience, as new images emerge from the completed arrangements, evoking a Buddhist mandala. Svoboda hopes that in viewing her work, one is brought into a meditative dream state.
JONATHAN HILS’ work for this exhibit will examine and question the relationships between solidity and vacancy. Within the realm of physics and biology we see more “nothingness” than “somethingness”. In the current age of information, data, and reliance on the digital, this work is my reflection on being present through materials, form and connections.
Remembering the ancient and integrating the new, JESSE POULIN endeavors to challenge his creational capacity, and manifest forms unbounded, yet complete. Exploring symmetry, dimensionality and scale, he weaves lines through space, and materializes their paths with myriad media into Mandali; each intended to provoke an experience within its witness. As organic and geometric forms coalesce, the mind is free to wander.
CHRIS HASSIG’s project uses the commonplace subject matter of grass to delve into the complexity and inexhaustible detail of nature. The composition of the drawings have evolved from simple horizons into geometric forms intended to revolutionize the aesthetic impact of the work from a distance; this achieves a simultaneous feat of calm minimalism and evolving complexity, depending on how close one comes to the drawing.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, September 14, 2018, 5-9 pm at the gallery in the Prado building on 11th & Cherokee Streets in Denver’s Golden Triangle Museum District. The reception is free and open to the public, and the artists will be in attendance.

The exhibition is on view through Saturday, November 3, 2018 during regular gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm, or by appointment. For further information call 303-355-8955, or visit: www.walkerfineart.com.

Walker Fine Art is a member of the Golden Triangle Museum District and the Denver Art Dealers Association.

The gallery is located just blocks from the Denver Art Museum in the Prado building on 11th Avenue and Cherokee Street (entrance on Cherokee).