NEW YORK, NY.- Hionas Gallery is presenting a two-person exhibition of work by Amanda Church and John Franklin: BODY / object. The show runs from October 12 to November 2, 2019.
BODY / object brings together two complementary bodies of work that interact both implicitly and thematically.
Within Amanda Church’s canvases, the fragmented and intertwined body parts that inhabit the space are recognizable, yet their actions remain elusive, hinting at something seductive one moment and quotidian the next. So one’s imagination and wandering eye are left to trace the contours and voluptuous lines that form an outstretched limb or a backside. No outlying border or trailing fragment is without purpose. The artist’s pronounced lines and cavorting shapes comprise an unmistakable gestalt, wherein the interplay of hard-edge geometry and soft biomorphic abstraction intimate a fleshly universe of subtle dimensionality and erotic implications.
John Franklin’s use of various materials to suggest anatomical elements is made even more evident through his pared-down compositions. The artist applies precise detailing and meticulous stitch work coupled with a deft balance of color. In some cases, Franklin takes whole color fields and “interrupts” himself with pattern and materiality – two qualities that are very much Franklin’s own “painterly touches.”
Franklin’s incorporation of materials like felt, silk ribbon, animal hides and thread in his work lends his otherwise hard-edge aesthetic a degree of softness, both materially and visually, until something approaching the biomorphic emerges through the cracks and crevices that appear throughout. His use of felt in particular is not merely a pure textural gesture or material choice but also references the work of Joseph Beuys, as well as conjures a sort of sexual fetishism. In doing so, Franklin’s works communicate an enmeshed sense of vulnerability and durability.
Amanda Church has been showing throughout the U.S. and Europe for over 20 years, with solo exhibitions in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Louisville, San Juan, Prague, and Marseille. Recent group exhibitions include a three-person show CKR at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, New York; New New York: Abstract Painting in the 21st Century at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu; and Minimal Baroque in Copenhagen, for which she received a grant from the Danish Council on the Arts. She is also a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work is in many private and public collections including Deutsche Bank; The Chambers Hotel, New York; the Progressive Corporation, Cleveland; and the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton. Church lives and works in New York City.
John Franklin attended the University of New Hampshire earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Botany. He briefly worked in New York making English and French period furniture and in Princeton at the Johnson Atelier Sculpture Foundry, and taught English in Kyoto, Japan, for two years. John’s emphasis then shifted to painting, which led to his attending the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied under John Baldessari and earned his MFA in Post Studio Art. Franklin has been exhibiting throughout the U.S. and Europe for more than three decades, with work in numerous private and public collections. In 2009 he was the recipient of a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. He lives in Princeton, NJ, and has his studio in East Chatham, NY.
