NEW YORK, NY.- Ana Cristea Gallery presents “Pattern Recognition”, a group exhibition that brings together the accomplished work of four emerging international artists: Raymonde Beraud, Ethan Cook, Roman Liška and Nazafarin Lotfi.
The works on view give evidence to a diverse and rigorous engagement with the expanded field of painting. They display daring investigations into the physical act of making: although abstract, the works are refreshingly visceral by virtue of their concrete materiality. Grouped together, these objects act as a membrane between the abstract and concrete, between discipline, formality and improvisation. Despite the poignant immediacy of the works, they are developed with acute attention to detail, precise in their execution. This refined skill is expertly articulated in the multiple layers in which these works have been deconstructed and reformed. Compiled from unusual and innovative mediums, these layerings are absorbed into a whole that simultaneously reveals and conceals – exposing the relationship between methods, means and meaning. The viewer is brought to consider the time and process, not only of the labor itself, but also of the progressive patterns of thought, as a new sensibility towards materiality and aesthetics emerges in a young generation of promising artists.
Raymonde Beraud’s work highlights the evolution of creation, how the part relates to the whole. By using handmade tools to create a pattern-like effect, Beraud creates an opaque visual field which focuses the eye on the layered parts (failures in their own right) and on the complete wholeness of the collective image. Beraud (b.1989) was born in Cyprus and currently lives and works in London. In 2013, she will graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been exhibited in UK, Italy and the United States.
The sublime minimalism of Ethan Cook’s works conceals the arduous process of weaving which lies behind each piece. The time and technical expertise required of weaving calls out one of the primary motifs of the show: the relationship between the viewer’s perception of a final work and history of the work itself. Cook (b. 1983) was born in Texas and currently lives and works in New York. His work will be featured in the current year in 100 Americans, curated by Diego Cortez, Venice Biennale in Italy. He has exhibited at Chelsea Art Museum, as well as shows in France, UK, Greece and The Netherlands.
Utilizing atypical materials, such as reflective and mesh fabrics, metal chains, rivets and expanding foam, Roman Liška analyzes the very language of painting by opening it up to a broader conversation of image-making. Liška (b. 1980) was born in Hamburg, Germany and currently lives and works in London. He is currently taking his MFA from the Royal College of Art in London. His work has been exhibited in UK, Germany, Italy and the United States.
Via mechanisms of destruction, removal and deliberate layering, Nazafarin Lotfi distances herself from the spectator. The potentially misleading minimalism of the monochromatic¸ grey-scale palettes indicates concealment, a denial of visibility which hints at an underlying interest in empty spaces, in interruptions and the unknown. Lotfi (b. 1984) was born in Mashad, Iran and currently lives and works in Chicago, IL. Her work has been exhibited in Italy, Germany, South Korea, Iran and the United States.
