NEW YORK, NY.- Frederico Sève Gallery is presenting Drawings and Studies 1960 to Now, a retrospective of the works on paper by Fanny Sanín that can be seen at the gallery through April 28. The Colombian-born, now American artist is best known for her symmetrical, geometric abstract paintings in oil and acrylic on canvas. This exhibition provides an illuminating history and insights into the methodical process leading to Sanin's larger paintings on canvas. While each drawing can be appreciated on its own, the suites of drawings that she generates for each of her final composition evince her intricate thought process using a variety of drawing media on paper to build her final compositions. This exhibition project has been organized by New York independent art curator and writer Patterson Sims, and has an accompanying publication with all images of the nearly 100 works that are on view and featuring an interview with the artist and text and commentaries by Sims. As Sims observes, “surveying her hundreds of drawings provides compelling evidence of Sanín’s protracted, methodical process and the deep meditation inherent to her art. Sanín’s sets of preparatory drawings explicate the meticulously deliberated and refined origins of each of her forceful, iconic canvases and larger works on paper. …Even in the Abstract Expressionist beginnings of her mature art, Sanín’s spontaneity was well thought through.”

When querried why she draws, she replied: “Drawings are the first and most important part of my creation … I used them to plan and reach the image that I would finally love to paint on canvas.” Sanín has further commented, “Color and structure go hand-in-hand in my work. It isn’t until they are both worked out in detail in my drawings that they can have meaning." As Sims states in his accompanying essay, “Seen in depth as never before, Sanín’s groups of drawings and the paintings that result powerfully attest to her relentless pursuit of abstraction and its remarkable capacity for transcendence and spiritual growth.”

The artist’s works have been displayed in over forty solo exhibitions, and more than 300 group shows throughout the world. Over forty museums own Sanín’s work, including the the Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, the Warsaw Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Art of the Bank of the Republic, Bogotá, the New York Public Library, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. More than fifty books have been published presenting or discussing her works, in addition to numerous reviews and articles.

Sanín was born in Bogotá, Colombia, has studied and worked internationally since the 1960’s in Europe, Mexico and the US. She has been residing in New York, where she maintains her primary studio, since 1971.