NEW YORK, NY.- Lucien Terras presents an exhibition of works by Ann Pibal that will run from November 21, 2015 until January 17, 2016. The exhibition is comprised of two groups of paintings from 2013 that contrast formally and chromatically and face each other in the space.
The two groups are referenced and differentiated by acronyms as all of Ann Pibal’s work – a language convention that reflects her highly distilled approach to abstraction: RBWC is a suite of five paintings on a gold background that constitute a single celebratory multi panel piece while DHWT is a series of six dark toned individual works that are condensed and powerful assertions of an abstraction rooted in the experiential world. The work of Ann Pibal goes back and forth between two poles – the ideal and the pragmatic – manifested through the contrast between the two components of the exhibition, but also their interconnectivity.
The gold paintings represent an iconic, idealized or hypothetical proposal. Spatially, not so much a container as a projection, reflecting light. The forms evolve from a perfect 10 x 10 inches square gold panel holding tightly concentric squares. Each square is drawn by razor sharp double lines of color that follow the rainbow chromatic dispersion. Over the course of the five works, permutations of shape and a shift from horizontal to diagonal lines occurs and the initial image of a whole ideal geometric pattern moves into an elongated diamond. Modest in scale but ambitious in content, the series RBWC brings to mind previous abstract contemplative practice such as Agnes Martin “On a Clear Day” and the notion of clarity. As a group they stand apart in the production of the artist.
The series of six dark brown and navy blue compositions titled DHWT diffuses the overt confidence of the gold suite, asserting in turn , a more practical sense of space and temporality. The triangular shapes seem weighed by gravity and could evoke schematic of shelters, tables or work space. The compositions are slightly unsettling and the tenuous chromatic tension between the solid brown background and the deep blue figures forces the viewer to look with heightened acuity as if to distinguish obstacles in darkness. They introduce the notion of doubt and ambiguity that is central to the work of Ann Pibal who asserts and questions formal abstraction.
Ann Pibal’s acrylic on aluminum paintings are at once brainy and open-ended, hard-edged and intimate. Without privileging one source over another, her work alludes to the robust history of abstract painting, architecture, and graphic design, as well as landscape and the sublime. Her work is included in many public collections including The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution. She has received awards from the Tiffany Foundation, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Pollock Krasner Foundation, The Rappaport Foundation and most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship Award. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and North Bennington, VT where she teaches at Bennington College.
