NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced Arrangements in Black, a selling exhibition in New York on view at 432 Park Avenue from 27 July to 19 August. Featuring 21 contemporary artists who have created 40 unique works of art specifically for the show, Arrangements in Black explores each artists’ response to the color black. Starting with the one-color prompt and expanding beyond that into a multitude of unique expressions, these works grew to include the relationship to color and light, prisms by extension, along with wavelengths, spectrums, and refractions. This exhibition incorporates a breadth of creativity only accomplished by bringing each artist’s individual approach together in dialogue with one another.

Lindsey Brittain Collins, whose work is featured above, said, "Black is both the presence of all colors and the complete absorption of visible light. This idea mirrors the way that I use the color black to embody the diversity of the people and experiences in the built environments portrayed in each of my paintings. The works I presented in this exhibition are architectural abstractions of two neighborhoods in New York City - the Striver's Row district in Harlem and the World Trade Center 9/11 memorial downtown. While often thought of as a somber color, I chose to use the color black to allow room for a spectrum of emotions that I hope is reflected in my work."

Patrick Alston, who will be including four works in the sale, said, “In response to Arrangements in Black, I was thinking about the foundation and structure of reality. I was considering black as the fabric on which everything (our universe, planets, thus our existence) was created/ built/ arranged upon. Portions of this fabric, sometimes referred to as "dark matter", is the ever expansive nature of the blackness we see above in the night sky. What is considered to be a never ending void is actually a reflection of infinite potential. I was thinking about blackness as being the constant in the equation of reality. The majority status quo in the universe. The colors, shapes and forms that make up existence is the evidence of the unseen dark matter that makes up the fabric of our existence.”

Wynnie Mynerva’s Bailo mi ritmo, pero no me detengo approaches black in conversation with other colors, saying, “The black color in my work represents a force of change, of rupture, the mourning of a process of inner healing and respect for transit. The vivacity of sexuality in the most luminous colors but the tragedy in the darkness that represents the changes, the death, and the life of desires. In my work, a body around others, dances and turns with a tongue that extends and coils, a tongue that is configured as his genital organ. The viewer will find other elements such as high-heeled shoes in the shape of knives, long nails that enter an anus, bodies turning around...”

Miety Heiden, Phillips’ Head of Private Sales, said, “We are delighted to kick off our summer programming at Phillips New York with Arrangements in Black. While the prompt given to the artists might appear to be a simple concept, the works on demonstrate how truly complex it is. The use and meaning of black pigment throughout the art historical canon is extremely layered and nuanced, evolving to take on tremendous social significance in the 21st century. The artists who have taken part in this show have each brough their own unique perspective to this thought-provoking prompt, the interpretation of which knows no bounds. We are grateful for their participation and look forward to presenting these important and insightful works to the public."