CONTACT: Marisa Sage, gallery director, (575-646-6110; misage@nmsu.edu) Valerie Amendola, gallery assistant (575-646-2545; artglry@nmsu.edu) NMSU University Art Gallery
August 29 - December 6
Christie Blizard, Judith Braun, Nathan Green, Sol LeWitt, Allie Rex
Las Cruces, NM-- The NMSU University Art Gallery presents “Off the Wall”, an exhibition inspired by the minimal wall drawings and sculptures of Sol LeWitt. This two-part exhibition will both trace the history of Sol LeWitt's relationship with NMSU, as well as show the extent of his influence on a new generation of artists who use the surface of the wall as their canvas. Starting on August 29 artists, assistants and students will begin a public installation process - creating works constructed directly onto the gallery walls. Part performance, part exploration into practice and exhibition design, this group show will create a conversation revealing the intricate actions employed when creating a minimal art work.
In addition to the work of Sol LeWitt, “Off the Wall” features the work of Allie Rex, Judith Braun, Christie Blizard and Nathan Green- four contemporary artists from across the country who’ve traded traditional supportive mediums such as the canvas, panel, and paper for the challenge of working directly on the wall. Manipulating perspective and generating large-scale optical illusions, each of these artists use various methods to challenge the viewers understanding of the existing architecture within the gallery space.
Allie Rex (Brooklyn, NY) creates her work by merging the techniques of painting, drawing, collage, installation and performance. Rex handpaints mylar and pins her carefully cut shapes, lines, units and grids directly onto the wall. She experiments with bold, vivid, and saturated color - producing abstract and universal symbols, which exposes intricate visual metaphors and layers of meaning. Her compositions are structured like flat paintings liberated from their two-dimensionality, yet delicately oscillating between two and three dimensions.
Judith Braun’s (New York, NY) drawings are created with a strict set of rules: Symmetry, Abstraction, Carbon medium. From these three seemingly simple rules Braun has created an infinite visual language that she spells out on gallery walls. Fingering, involves Braun carefully dipping her fingertips in charcoal and then using her fingers as brushes to sketch, brush, paint, and draw stunning large-scale complex symmetrical works. As can be expected, the notion of spirituality, energy, and geometry take a major role in Braun’s work. Through her repetitive mark making a driving pulse of movement and energy is discovered- generating a sensory explosion of light and vibration.
Christie Blizard (San Antonio, TX) states in regards to her work: “I am intrigued by the connective tissues between painting and performance, public and private and the spectacle and the hidden.” Blizard’s glow paintings explore collaborative practice as she works together with NMSU students to make a room size drawing with tape. Blizard’s tape based installations combine her influences of videogame design and traditional textile design with her interest in spirituality, social practice, and fragmentation. Often reminiscent of tribal or shamanistic drawings, Her work pulsates from the walls and ground due in part to her use of Blacklight and her neon pink, hot teal, and dayglo purple color palette.
Nathan Green’s (Dallas, TX) paintings, sculptures, and installations coexist in the austere world of modernist abstraction and the more playful world of craft. Creating sculptures out of walls painted with luminescent beams of light, geometric patterning, and trompe-l’oeil techniques, Green forms his work intuitively with paint rollers and premixed Home Depot paints. For his site-specific works at NMSU Green’s sending students an instructional video and a map for them to trace and recreate his painted gradient-based lexicon of shapes.
In conjunction with this exhibition, we invited artists to submit images to be displayed NMSU Art building. Take a look at the results below:
Artist: Diana Surma “Bendy Pattern Violet Stripe” and “Bendy Pattern Variation II”
Artist: Diana Surma, “Bendy Pattern Variation Composite I & II”
Artist: Jake Weigel, “Mirage”
The “Off the Wall” installation runs August 29 – September 11. This is a public installation that is free and all ages from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Saturday, closed Sundays. Exhibition closes December 6, 2014.
Events:
- Installation reception: August 29, 5 p.m.
- “Off the Wall Banner Project” & official opening reception: September 11, 5 p.m.
- Nathan Green Artist Workshop: October 24, 12 p.m.
- Plaque & Restoration Reception: November 6, 5 p.m.
Gallery Talks:
- Judith Braun: August 29, 6 p.m.
- Marisa Sage: September 11, 6 p.m.
- Veronica Roberts: September 25, 6 p.m.
- Nathan Green: October 23, 6 p.m.
- Silvia Marinas: November 6, 5 p.m.
The NMSU University Art Gallery located in D.W. Williams Hall, at the intersection of University Avenue and Solano Drive. Its hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00-4:00 p.m. Designated UAG parking spots are available in the lot West of the art building every day. Parking on the NMSU campus is free on weekends.
For more information, or to arrange a group visit, please visit the gallery website at: uag.nmsu.edu, or contact Valerie Amendola directly (575) 646-2545; artglry@nmsu.edu).
