Davidson Gallery presents a group exhibition curated by Natasha Schlesinger. As the English poet Alexander Pope wrote in the 18 th century, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”. When turmoil rages on multiple levels all around us, it is hope that gives us the strength to go on and look forward to the future. Spring brings regeneration and renewal, so we turn to the future and see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. The human need to create and the human ability to appreciate art connect us to boundless possibilities and potential for something better, for something more. The artists in this exhibition use their preferred mediums to express abstract concepts such as hope, longing, spiritual renewal, and human potential for love in their works. We, as viewers, connect to these concepts through their works and experience a re-awakening of our senses and a renewal of hope for the future.
Nicky Broekhuysen works with binary code to conceive and physically create her works. Binary code is a language designed for information exchange – we use it daily for virtually every task imaginable; it surrounds us in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals – and yet it is essentially illegible to humans. Broekhuysen uses that contradiction as part of her work. The works in this exhibition transcend both a recognizable language and geometry of form to elicit a spontaneous response from the viewer. They seem to give off a pulsating positive energy that excites our senses.
Pedro S. de Movellàn is one of the best and most accomplished contemporary kinetic sculptors. His work activates color and space, moved or energized by the natural air currents and often taking into account nature, the landscape or the interior architecture. They are inherently curious, exciting and joyful to look at and experience.
Angela Heisch references nature, biomorphic forms, and the viewer’s emotive response to color in her paintings and works on paper. Sometimes her paintings evoke a landscape or elements of flora, and other times we might be seeing the rounded forms of a female body. The geometry of her compositions is not static but undulates and moves in space, taking us on a dynamic and exciting visual journey.
Sam Messenger’s earlier mathematically oriented and laboriously drawn monochromatic works on paper have led to strong abstract paintings that translate color and gesture into bold compositions invoking a sublime experience of both creation and visual perception of the work.
Boo Saville’s hypnotic, abstract paintings render color and light as sublime moments in time, capturing a landscape or a view of water with up to 40 layers of paint seamlessly and flawlessly applied with no perceptible brushstroke. Saville comments that “colour fields are about the depth and vault of emotion and memory layered on top of each other.”
Thomas Witte cuts paper as though he is drawing in space, ingeniously interpreting found vintage photographic imagery into dimensional, cut-out scenes. The works included in the current exhibition invite us to travel in time and space to unknown destinations where time stands still, liberating us from more quotidian concerns
Hope Springs Eternal is curated by Natasha Schlesinger. Visits are available by appointment by contacting the gallery at 212-759-7555 or info@davidsongallery.com