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      Cubist Figures Wade into the Shadowy Depths of Connor Addison’s Allegories

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      “In the Loving Care of Animal Spirits” (2022), oil and acrylic on linen, 200 x 300 centimeters. All images © Connor Addison, shared with permission

      Cubist Figures Wade into the Shadowy Depths of Connor Addison’s Allegories

      September 6, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      With light inevitably comes darkness, a dualism Barcelona-based artist Connor Addison (previously) finds endlessly intriguing. “We so often forget to embrace the shadow as it’s presumed unloveable or is invisible,” he says.

      Addison pulls at what he finds “in the space between our joy, passion, conscious thought and our fear…what lies in the shadows of our mind.” He often begins a painting with an inquiry or thought that turns into an allegory. “Brothers II,” for example, came from the following questions: “What is a sibling relationship? How do play and manipulation function between siblings?”

      “Brothers II” (2024), 260 x 161 centimeters

      “Visualisation can be so spontaneous,” he adds. “The whole painting just emerges while brushing my teeth for example.”

      Working in muted palettes of earth tones, Addison renders cubist figures with pointed flesh and geometric limbs. Stripping away clothing and distinctive facial features appeals to universal feelings and emotions, like unconditional love, anguish, and curiosity. He adds:

      I like the idea that someone 2,000 years in the future or past would still find a work meaningful and intelligible, perhaps even on an alien planet! Allegory is a powerful thing. Its popularity died as religion fell out of vogue, and we became more literate, but I love a story captured in image. It can say so much more than the word.

      Addison is preparing for his next solo show with Aktion Art in 2026. Follow his work on Instagram.

      “How Long Must This Silence Echo” (2021), oil on linen, 140 x 89 centimeters

      “Mother, Mother” (2021), oil on linen, 150 x 150 centimeters

      “The Conversation” (2023), oil on Linen, 260 x 183 centimeters

      “Becoming Myself Without Any End” (2024), 263 x 142 centimeters

      “Something From Nothing” (2023), oil and watercolor on linen, 400 x 200 centimeters

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      In ‘Spirit Level,’ Tau Lewis’s Monumental Figures Usher in an Unearthly World

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      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing. All images courtesy of ICA Boston, shared with permission

      In ‘Spirit Level,’ Tau Lewis’s Monumental Figures Usher in an Unearthly World

      September 6, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      At the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Tau Lewis (previously) presents a vast cosmology in which monumental, mythic beings herald in a new world. Five figures stand nearly 11 feet tall in draping garments, their hands positioned in distinctive gestures. With titles like “The Doula” and “The Reaper,” each bears a particular role as they loom over a large circular quilt at the center of the gallery floor.

      From found fabrics and objects, Lewis created the towering sculptures for Spirit Level, her first solo museum show in the U.S. The Toronto-born artist maintains a robust collection of materials in her Brooklyn studio, which she painstakingly stitches and sculpts into unearthly beings. These works continue her interest in how objects hold meaning and memory.

      “Mutasis Moon” (2021), recycled leather, seashells, sand dollars, acrylic paint, PVC pipe, galvanized steel, muslin, and recycled poly fibers, 40 x 40 x 25 inches. Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London, © Tau Lewis

      Her 2021 figure “Mutasis Moon,” for example, is an alien-like creature with four eyes and turquoise hands. Wrapped around a galvanized steel and PVC armature, the friendly painted-leather figure stands with arms outstretched as if welcoming the viewer.

      In Spirit Level, remnants of clothing, muslin scraps dyed with rust, snakeskin, conch shells, and coral bone merge, transposing the materials’ origins into new contexts. “The Doula,” for instance, wears a dark green, blue, and brown gown of leather and suede and is what the artist calls a “portrait of the sea.” Conjuring the dark depths of the ocean, the sculpture alludes to a space where life and death coexist.

      The gold-outfitted figure is titled “The Handle of the Axe,” which references the epigraph of Alice Walker’s 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy that states: “When the axe came into the forest, the trees said, ‘the handle is one of us.’” Arms open for an embrace, the sculpture draws on the tensions between the desire for nonviolence and the struggle for liberation.

      At the center of the figures is “The Last Transmission,” the sprawling quilt that radiates outward from a starfish at the center. Small fabric panels adorned with glass, beads, and wire form an elaborate patchwork, appearing as an architectural portal to another universe.

      Spirit Level is on view in Boston through January 20, 2025, after which it will travel to David Zwirner in Los Angeles. Find more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing

      “Harmony” (2019), recycled leather, recycled poly fibers, rebar, wire, hardware, seashells, stones, and acrylic paint, 39 3/4 x 47 x 35 inches. Image © Tau Lewis

      “Knot of Pacification” (2021), recycled leather, wool, and suede, 114 x 100 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles, © Tau Lewis

      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing

      Installation view of “The Last Transmission” (2024), recycled leather and suede, cotton canvas, acrylic paint and finisher, natural dyes, assorted found metal, wood, ceramic, and glass objects, wire, beads, seashells, coated nylon thread, and coated cotton thread, overall diameter approximately 240 inches. Photo by Mel Taing

      Detail of “Mutasis Moon” (2021), recycled leather, seashells, sand dollars, acrylic paint, PVC pipe, galvanized steel, muslin, and recycled poly fibers, 40 x 40 x 25 inches. Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London, © Tau Lewis

      “Venus in Leo” (2023), steel, wood, enamel paint, acrylic paint, leather dye and finisher, recycled leather and suede, recycled fabric, found jewelry, clam shells, and coated nylon thread, 68 x 18 x 18 inches. Photo by Charles Benton, courtesy of the artist, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, and JTT, New York, © Tau Lewis

      Detail of “Venus in Leo” (2023), steel, wood, enamel paint, acrylic paint, leather dye and finisher, recycled leather and suede, recycled fabric, found jewelry, clam shells, and coated nylon thread, 68 x 18 x 18 inches. Photo by Charles Benton, courtesy of the artist, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, and JTT, New York, © Tau Lewis

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      Loss, Grief, and Renewal Spring Forth in Ebony G. Patterson’s Paper Assemblages

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      Detail of “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXV” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, roaches, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “affliction,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed). Photos by Mikhail Mishin. All images © Ebony G. Patterson, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, shared with permission

      Loss, Grief, and Renewal Spring Forth in Ebony G. Patterson’s Paper Assemblages

      September 5, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      For more than a decade, the history, lore, science, and symbolism of the garden has been central to the work of Ebony G. Patterson (previously). In the summer of 2023, Patterson’s installation …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… at New York Botanical Garden marked an introduction to her series Studies for a vocabulary of loss.

      At this weekend’s Armory Show, the artist shares 24 new pieces from the series in a solo presentation exploring the symbolism of gardens and grief.

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXV” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, roaches, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “affliction,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

      For Patterson, the garden is a rich metaphor for the body. She often interrogates themes of visibility and invisibility, navigating the intersections of gender, class, and race within the context of postcolonial space. In her paper assemblages, Patterson combines cutouts of foliage, butterflies, and blossoms with plastic insects and mourning rosettes.

      “Each piece evokes the imagery of memorial wreaths but with text that diverges from traditional funeral associations,” says a statement from moniquemeloche. “Patterson asks us to grapple with the impossibility of loss, reflecting on an extensive vocabulary centered on words like calamity, forgetting, perdition, misery, wound, lack, failure, blot out, debt, hurt, undoing, and havoc.”

      In the context of the garden, the loss and renewal of life are inherent in its natural cycle, and through vibrant and detailed reliefs, Patterson considers the cycle of grief and the potential for life.

      If you’re in New York, you can find Patterson’s solo booth on view from September 6 to 8 at the Javits Center. Find more on the artist’s website.

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXIV” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “blot out,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXII” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “forgetting,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXVIII” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, roaches, and memorial rosette reading “perdition,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

      Detail of “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXVIII” (2024)

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXII” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “forgetting,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

      Detail of “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXII” (2024)

      “Studies for a vocabulary of loss XXIX” (2024), digital print on archival watercolor paper and construction paper with feather butterflies, plastic flies, roaches, spiders, and memorial rosette reading “lack,” 47 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 12 inches (framed)

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      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

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      Work in progress for ‘Where Once the Waters.’ All images © David Cass, shared with permission

      On Vintage Objects, David Cass’s Paintings Summon the Sea

      September 5, 2024

      Art Climate

      Kate Mothes

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      For David Cass, the sea offers an endless source of wonder at its depths, history, bounty, and sometimes ferocity. Based between the Scottish Borders and Athens, the artist (previously) has long been fascinated by the power of water, especially its increasing vulnerability to the effects of the climate crisis.

      On found objects like tins and matchboxes to book pages and antique pulleys, Cass repeats motifs of waves and distant marine horizons in oil and gouache. In Light on Water, his current solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, the artist continues to address the warming and rapid rising of ocean levels around the world through paintings that hover between abstraction and representation.

      “Reach” (2022-23), oil and oil bar on primed bus blind on board, 75 x 75 centimeters

      While creating much of the work for the show at his studio in Greece, Cass considered the landscape outside—its islands and peninsulas encompassed by water. He observed how the rippling surface can transform its appearance moment by moment due to the weather or time of day. Although “a threat rests behind this mesmeric picture,” he says in a statement. “In this exhibition, light also represents heat.”

      Cass draws attention to estimates that 91 percent of Earth’s excess heat energy trapped in the climate system is stored by our oceans. As the planet continues to warm, this storage capability disappears, threatening all manner of life.

      The artist calls on a time before we were aware of climate change, evoking the Industrial Age—incidentally, the dawn of greenhouse gases—in a series of oil paintings titled 500 Years that subtly nod to the Old Masters.

      Light on Water continues through September 28 in Edinburgh. Find more on Cass’s website and Instagram.

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

      “October 2017,” gouache on card

      “Pulley I – Rockport, ME” (2023-24), oil on marine pulley, 23 x 11.5 x 8 centimeters

      “500 Years (after Van Eertvelt) II” (2023-24), oil and pencil on gessoed chest panel, 22 x 29 centimeters

      “September 2020 – April 2024, Norfolk” (2020-24), gouache on c.18th-century solid oak plank door, 77 x 196 x 4 centimeters

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      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

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      “An African Survey.” All images © Barbara Wildenboer, shared with permission

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

      September 4, 2024

      Art Craft

      Jackie Andres

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      While heavy, hardcover reference books often embody prestige and historical value, the comprehensive volumes also carry an air of intellectual overload. Filled from cover to cover with extensive and complex concepts, the tomes beckon the Paradox of Knowledge, which states that the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know.

      This vexing liminal space between the known and unknown is a driving force for Barbara Wildenboer’s work. The Cape Town-based artist (previously) sources secondhand books that span a wide range of languages, worldviews, and subjects such as philosophy, art, history, music, biology, archaeology, and more. Fascinated by linguistics and systems of writing, Wildenboer aims to decode the ways that we assign meaning to symbols.

      “A World History of Art”

      Scalpel and scissors in hand, Wildenboer transforms countless book pages into narrow, capillary-like slivers that splay outward from the spine. Through these symmetrical sculptures, the artist references other naturally mirrored forms like the brain’s left and right hemispheres linked by the corpus callosum, the wingspan of the death’s-head hawkmoth, and the Rorshach inkblot.

      Wildenboer connects these formal qualities to the process of deciphering texts. Her biography notes, “she cuts through these dense and claustrophobic discourses, rendering them mute.” Instead, she alters books to the point that they’re no longer legible, transforming the once familiar characters into new glyphs.

      See more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      “Genesis”

      “Cogito Ergo Sum” More

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      Katrine Hildebrandt Embraces Symmetry in Paper, Wire, and Reed

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      “EQUILIBRIUM” (2023), hand-burnt lines, indigo-dyed reed, and wire on paper, 30 1/4 x 44 inches. All images © Katrina Hildebrandt, shared with permission

      Katrine Hildebrandt Embraces Symmetry in Paper, Wire, and Reed

      September 4, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Katrine Hildebrandt is captivated by geometry and symmetry, drawing on mathematical or scientific diagrams as a starting point for her precise mixed-media compositions. “At the same time, I find beauty in imperfect, non-tangible, and fleeting moments,” she says. “I think my work blends the relationship between the controlled and wild.”

      The Boston-based artist employs natural materials like indigo dye, rattan, and pigmented fabrics. She also uses a wood-burning tool that sears lines into the surface, referencing the duality of permanence and impermanence. The work is “symmetrical yet not perfect,” she says.

      “REFLECTED RIPPLES” (2023), hand-burnt lines, reed, and wire on indigo-dyed paper,30 1/4 x 44 inches

      Hildebrandt creates color from natural sources, and while the dyes are as lightfast as possible, she embraces the inevitable changes due to time and the elements. “Nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect” she says, “life and the work is in constant flux.”

      Beginning each piece by loosely sketching compositions on paper, Hildebrandt intuitively selects the materials based on the color or texture she’d like to achieve. “I always leave room for play and interpretation throughout the entire process,” she says. With meticulous and methodical attention to detail, the artist starts in the center of the paper and works outward to map the composition, using repetition to create a sense of visual rhythm and harmony.

      With the help of her studio assistant, artist Ciara Scales, Hildebrandt is working toward a number of projects, including an exhibition with Uprise Art scheduled to open in June next year and SCOPE Art Fair in Miami this December with Soapbox Arts. If you’re in New York, you can also find her work presented by Uprise Art at Art on Paper this weekend.

      Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

      “MIRRORED RIPPLE” (2023), hand-burnt lines, reed, and wire on paper, 21 x 30 1/4 inches

      Detail of “MIRRORED RIPPLE”

      “DISTORT” (2023), hand-burnt lines and indigo ink on paper, 12 x 10 inches

      Detail of “EQUILIBRIUM”

      “DOUBLE VISION” (2023), hand-burnt lines, indigo ink, reed, and wire on paper, 12 x 10 inches

      Detail of “REFLECTED RIPPLES”

      “MIRROR” (2023), hand-burnt lines, indigo ink, reed, wire, and oak on paper, 10 x 12 inches

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      Andrew Hem’s Ethereal Paintings Reflect a Sense of Endless Wonder

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      All images @ Andrew Hem, shared with permission

      Andrew Hem’s Ethereal Paintings Reflect a Sense of Endless Wonder

      September 4, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      Occupying vibrant, unearthly environments, Andrew Hem’s characters exude a sense of wonder and openness toward the world. The Los Angeles-based artist (previously) continues his fantastic, gravity-defying works that see figures float upside down or amid a sea of jellyfish. 

      Now a father of two, Hem frequently reflects on his Cambodian heritage and how he’s sharing it with his children. The artist translates his pride for his homeland into each painting, rendering figures who are re-orienting themselves in novel, dreamlike situations. The largely introspective subjects gravitate toward calm and finding joy in the simple and mundane.

      Follow Hem’s work on Instagram.

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      Angela Fan Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

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      “White Christmas Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 40 inches. All images © Angela Fang Zirbes, shared with permission

      Angela Fan Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

      September 3, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      While preparing her undergraduate thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design in 2022, Angela Fang Zirbes craved something different. She was working with traditional brushwork on canvas but was dissatisfied with the technique’s ability to achieve heightened contrast. Incidentally, her pet rabbit of 13 years also died that autumn.

      “She had been with me through some of my most formative years, and her death had a deep impact on me,” Fang Zirbes says. “I began thinking a lot about my upbringing and family history in Iowa, and I started working from a lot of old black-and-white family photographs as well as found imagery from around my hometown.”

      “Summer Birthday Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

      Drawing on the monochrome snapshots, Fang Zirbes began to employ graphite, then later dabbling in airbrush. She says, “The black-and-white style enabled me to reference the aged photographs and learn how to portray light and shadow in a new way.”

      The paint clings to the texture of raw canvas, creating a velvety texture of deep blacks juxtaposed with highly defined, masked edges. “It mirrors the content of my work,” the artist says, “where my compositions are sharp with fear and nervousness but the subjects and settings firstly appear strangely friendly.”

      Fang Zirbes’s process revolves around world-building, connecting references in every composition to her personal history or recurring dreams. “I believe this recurrence has a meaning that is rooted in my childhood memories or calls back to my past and how it impacts me today,” she says. “For example, I was always around rabbits and formed a special affection for them, which explains why I find myself painting rabbits over and over again when thinking about my upbringing.”

      Domestic items like Chinese pickle jars, lamps, couches, or sewing scissors appear within wallpapered rooms that tap into the artist’s home or her grandparents’ house in rural Iowa. “They are a combination of influences from both my American family and my Chinese family, as well as the Midwest which has its own unique culture that has had an effect on me,” she says.

      “Thorns” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      Fan Zirbes is working toward a solo exhibition scheduled to open in March at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York. “I’m continuing my monochromatic work about my upbringing in Iowa, but I’m introducing a new focus around the supernatural and American theories surrounding ghosts and hauntings. It’s a concept I’ve been researching over this last year and I can’t wait to see it through.”

      Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

      “Goodnight Moon” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Vanity” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

      “Dog on Couch” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Mama’s PaoCai Jar” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

      “Rabbit Vase with Flowers” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 18 inches

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