AMY FELDMAN

COUNTER GROUND

23 AUGUST - 23 SEPTEMBER 2018

In Counter Ground, her third exhibition with the gallery, Amy Feldman advances a distinct painting language, mining the potential of gray and it's doubled significance as both a neutral and non-neutral force. Within her abstract sign system, a clear allusion to the body and to Feldman's position as a female painter persists in the work. 

Feldman chose to construct the works on view using acrylic, spray paint and silkscreen ink. The artist scanned canvas fabric, enlarged the weave in Photoshop and reproduced it back onto a gray primed canvas, before applying gestural marks to the surface. By reassigning the canvas material as image, Feldman highlights the paradoxical relationship between the physical and formal, psychic and conceptual.  

The silkscreened print superimposes a grid, and its skew creates depth on the otherwise flat picture plane. The optical effect is disorienting, as the hyper smooth surfaces appear to be rough in texture and to vibrate in the flesh. Negative space, which flips positive, is 'filled-in' by the print, making it more visible to the viewer, and exaggerates its importance to the overall image. The print functions as a symbol of 'illusionistic space', and is antithetical to the expressive power of form and gesture. Both coexist and are complicit in succinctly channeling the impact of experience on the viewer.  

Making use of spray paint to direct the viewer's attention to the center of the canvas, Feldman adds greater tension and intensifies the anxiety inherent in her forms. As in Color Sucker, the sprayed marks showcase the painted gesture and its integral relationship to figure and ground. Feldman's works can feel both neutral and transcendent and they acknowledge the given parody in that. The viewer reacts on an instinctual level, a reaction that is mediated by the irony of reproduction, presented by the silkscreened grounds. There is resistance to and compliance with guttural response, as intellect is confronted by intuition, as immediacy yields resonance.

Amy Feldman, b. 1981, received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Rutgers University. Recent solo exhibitions include Breath Myth, Blain Southern, Berlin (2017); Nerve Reserve, James Cohan, New York (2017); Psyche Shade, Ratio 3, San Francisco (2016); Good Gloom, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL (2016). Select group exhibitions include This and That: Some Recent Acquisitions, The Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg Museum, Derenburg, Germany (2018); nonObjectives, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE (2017); Riot Grrrls, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL (2016-2017); Quicktime, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2017); New York Painting, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany (2015); The New York Moment, Musée d'art Moderne, St. Etienne, France (2014).

Feldman is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in Fine Arts (2108) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2013). Feldman's work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, IL and the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.  

Reviews and features of Feldman's work have appeared in ArtForum, The New York Times, Art in America, BOMB Magazine, New York Magazine, Monopol, Mousse, The Brooklyn Rail, Omkonst among others.

Feldman lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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I Amy Feldmans tredje utställning på galleriet visar hon en serie nya målningar. Abstraktioner i olika grå nyanser appliceras på en skannad duk, uppförstorad i väven och åter-reproducerad på en grå behandlad silkscreen. Genom att omvandla duken till bild framhäver Feldman det paradoxala förhållandet mellan det fysiska och formella, psykiska och konceptuella. I reproduktionen formas synliga galler och vinklar som skapar djup på bildytan.

I Counter Ground kombinerar Feldman sina enkla och kraftfulla gester med sprayfärg för att rikta betraktarens uppmärksamhet på mitten av duken. Appliceringen av färgen sker inom ett ögonblick och de sprayade märkena ökar spänningen och intensifierar balansen i formerna.

Feldman tror på psykologin hos en dämpad palett och dess sublima förmågor. Hennes målningar kan kännas både neutrala och transcendenta vilket förvandlar bildplanet till språkliga tecken. Betraktaren reagerar då instinktivt, eftersom intellektet konfronteras med intuition.

Typiskt för Amy Feldmans måleri är att det finns en disharmoni i varje målning, eftersom formen är antingen skev eller asymmetrisk. Rundade former refererar till personliga upplevelser av kroppslighet, och agerar som tecken för den utbredda oron som omger kvinnokroppen. Detta exemplifieras i de laddade spänningarna mellan figur och grund, bild och kant. I Color Sucker är det exempelvis spänning mellan stillhet och formens öppna flöde, en klarhet och motsägelse i sig. Detta uppnås under själva processen i måleriet, där det finns en koppling mellan impuls och precision.

Amy Feldman, f. 1981, har en BFA från the Rhode Island School of Design och en MFA från Rutgers University. Hennes senaste soloutställningar har varit Breath Myth, Blain Southern, Berlin (2017); Nerve Reserve, James Cohan, New York (2017); Psyche Shade, Ratio 3, San Francisco (2016); Good Gloom, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL (2016). Hennes verk har inkluderats i grupputställningar som t.ex. This and That: Some Recent Acquisitions, The Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg Museum, Derenburg, Germany (2018); nonObjectives, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE (2017); Riot Grrrls, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL (2016-2017); Quicktime, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2017); New York Painting, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany (2015); The New York Moment, Musée d'art Moderne, St. Etienne, France (2014).

Feldman har tilldelats the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in Fine Arts (2108) och the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2013). Hennes verk tillhör den permanenta samlingen i Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, IL och Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.  

Feldmans verk har blivit recenserade i ArtForum, The New York Times, Art in America, BOMB Magazine, New York Magazine, Monopol, Mousse, The Brooklyn Rail, Omkonst mfl.

Feldman bor och arbetar i Brooklyn, New York.