The Project Room is thrilled to announce our exhibition of exquisite modern abstraction by
Barbara Kerwin and Eric Zammitt
This exhibit offers a unique opportunity to enjoy the intimate juxtaposition of sublime works by these two contemporary artists. Each artist has mastered their own unique vision and methodology to express deeply meaningful and mysterious concepts through the language of order and geometry. The works of both of these artists are equally and infinitely mysterious, refined, quiet, meditative and transcendental.
|
Barbara Kerwin speaks about her paintings as expressing “a love of systems and a catalogue of feelings, nuance and measurement. The paintings mark time and its passage.” The work is labor-intensive, utilizing dozens of layers of paint. The works in this exhibit are part of her Wealth and Benefits series -- works of complex, geometric patterns utilizing the rectangle as a motif applied to her longstanding interest in economic systems. The paintings are created with acrylic, oil, or other mediums such as oil in highmelt waxes, each medium being chosen for how it will fulfill the need of each work. Dr. Betty Brown, respected Los Angeles art critic and art historian has written that “...Kerwin creates paintings that point beyond the visible world. They function as quiet meditations on balance, harmony, beauty, and the enduring order of the universe." |
|
|
Barbara Kerwin created three Wealth paintings and three Benefits paintings for Transcendental Meditations: The Geometry of Creation. According to Kerwin, she “began creating the Wealth pieces during the Arab Spring. Uneasy with the anger caused by the world’s economic conditions, I started making sensual, grid-based paintings that incorporate asymmetric geometries and often include the color gold to signify wealth.” In Kerwin’s words, the Benefits series paintings are “dedicated to those wealthy individuals who use their fortunes to help mankind. Their particular efforts are analyzed and then interpreted into a geometric abstraction that utilizes the trapezoid as a breakout form.”
Barbara Kerwin received her MFA in Painting & Sculpture from Claremont Graduate University and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her works are widely collected , enjoyed in such prominent collections as the Peter Thiel Collection and the Paul Allen collection. Her work can be viewed online at http://www.barbarakerwin.com/.
The Language of Abstraction
Barbara Kerwin will present a workshop on geometric reduction and color theory:
January 5th, 2019.
For further details please click here.
Barbara Kerwin received her MFA in Painting & Sculpture from Claremont Graduate University and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her works are widely collected , enjoyed in such prominent collections as the Peter Thiel Collection and the Paul Allen collection. Her work can be viewed online at http://www.barbarakerwin.com/.
The Language of Abstraction
Barbara Kerwin will present a workshop on geometric reduction and color theory:
January 5th, 2019.
For further details please click here.
|
In his own words, Eric Zammitt’s work “alludes to the dynamics and interplay of dual elements; matter/energy, spirit/body, emotion/ intellect. It is simultaneously about our gestalt experience of the drama and beauty of creation, and our intellectual fascination with its parts and how they relate to create a whole.” According to Zammitt, “one of the ways I find of expressing this interplay is by compounding complexes of patterned color into synergistic wholes. Color and pattern are primal to our history and survival. They touch parts of us that are archetypal, rooted in nature, and infinitely curious. I employ abstraction and minimalism as ways to bypass the literal and go directly to metaphor, emotion, and the ineffable. At the same time, like classical music, which integrates intellect and emotion, the works are based in structure, rhythm, and a form of logic.” The works are often associated with energy fields, music, quantum and string theory, weaving, land and seascapes, genetics, and other similar concepts.
|
|
In contrast to Barbara Kerwin’s work, which is created via a process of layering of paint and building up of a topographical surface, Zammitt’s wall and sculptural works are made of tens of thousands of solid bits of colored acrylic plastic glued together, then sanded and polished. These bits are laminated into cohesive panels through an intensive process of layering, slicing, and reassembly. This process is then followed by wet-sanding and polishing. For Eric, “colored acrylic plastic is simply paint, but in solid form, and my ‘brushes’ are the bandsaw, table saw, and glue.”
Jeff Davis, a writer for the Pasadena Independent, visited Zammitt’s studio last year and wrote eloquently about Eric’s art and process: “To construct the wall works, the towers are sliced into long slats, and again into sticks that can then be arranged into new designs. As you stare at the works, patterns start to emerge: Waves of light, a sense of energy and the DNA double helix are common elements in many of the wall pieces. Others seem to evoke feelings of music, time and digital pixilation even though they are analog (hand built) constructions.”
Eric Zammitt’s work is widely exhibited and is collected internationally. His work is included in such prestigious collections as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California. Eric Zammitt’s work can be viewed online at www.ericzammitt.com.
Please come visit THE PROJECT ROOM @ Independent Project Press in the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop to meditate on the modern
aesthetics of two of Los Angeles’s prominent contemporary artists.
