NEW YORK, NY.- Garvey|Simon Art Access presents FRAGMENTS, a group exhibition featuring works by J. Ivcevich, Ray Kass and Sandy Litchfield. The show will run from December 10, 2013 – January 11, 2014, with an opening reception on December 12, 6-8pm.
This exhibition explores the way three different contemporary artists interpret fragmentation, both literally and figuratively. Grammatically, “fragments,” can be both noun and verb. An artist fragments the picture plane into several related shards, layers or pieces. These fragments can be either physical (pictorial space, literal subject matter) or metaphorical (depicting fragments of memory, or symbolic remnants of our subconscious).
J. Ivcevich extracts fragments of urban deterioration and grit in much of his work. Taking inspiration from the abstract forms and layered beauty unexpectedly found in shredded advertisement posters around New York, Ivcevich photographs many of these examples of urban decay as the basis for a body of work he calls, “Shreds.” Drawn to the abstract geometry of these images, the artist fragments them further via the calibrated replication and distillation of various shapes from this field of torn paper. Using his signature painting technique (via dental syringe), the artist outlines selected forms in a bold, three-dimensional line -- fragmenting them even further from their already nebulous source. His work comments on the fleeting bits and pieces of information in our society – and how it is possible to see an inherent formal beauty in it all.
Ray Kass develops mixed water-media compositions in response to his deep connection to landscape. By overlapping gathered fragments of nature he creates strikingly abstract paintings, wherein the various parts become a new whole. Rather than try to visually depict the natural world, Kass seeks to evoke the experience and vital essence of it. The elements of fire, water, air and earth abstractly emerge in his paintings and comment on the processes of nature at work. His liquid media offers a variety of opacity and textures. The application of paint and dried pigments onto wet oil emulsion creates a bleeding, transient quality, which calls to mind both light and movement. Kass uses stencils created from his own nature drawings as templates for the layers. Often, paint is applied through nylon scrims creating a mesh-like effect that also suggests impermanence. There is an inherent lyricism in each of his works as these natural forms meld and swirl to create new energies.
Sandy Litchfield creates imaginary worlds from fragments of memory – emotional terrain combined with realistic shards of actual landscape. What is born is her own geography, history, culture, and ecology. Litchfield uses a wide range of media including collage, paint, photography, and digital prints to create fragmented and abstracted landscapes that are derived from a sublimation of desire and/or fear. Snippets of forest, sunshine, and foliage congeal as places of haunting enchantment or spiritual refuge. In all the work is an inherent tension between the abstract and the representational, which remarks on both physical and psychological intersections of the domestic and the wild.
