Splotch

July 20 through August 19, 2016
Opening reception: July 20, 2016, 6-8pm

Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #201
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #202
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #204
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #206
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #207
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #208
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #209
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #210
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #211
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #212
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #181
Splotch (installation view, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York). Image #192
Elisabeth Condon, "Fear of Life Can Be a Subtle Thing", 2015 Acrylic and glit.... Image #184
Walter Biggs, Each: "Untitled", 2016, Graphite, sand, acrylic and oil on line.... Image #199
Andreas Kocks, "A Momentary Suspension of Doubt", 2014 Aluminum leaf on water.... Image #179
Aaron Williams, "Half Control", 2016 Routered MDF, oil paint, 32 x 24 inches. Image #180
Jian-Jun Zhang, "First Drop of Water (print series #1)", 2015 Monoprint Paper.... Image #182
Jamie Powell, "Muff Tuft", 2016 Acrylic and spray paint on dyed torn canvas 1.... Image #185
Jamie Powell, "Rosebud", 2015 Acrylic and spray paint on dyed torn canvas, 9..... Image #186
Julia von Eichel, "Untitled (corner)", 2014 Silk, acrylic, wood, thread plast.... Image #187
Karen Tompkins, "Galileo Sunspots 1", 2016 gold leaf, oil and gesso on insula.... Image #188
Lynda Benglis, "HOT SPOT", 1999 Aluminum, 12 x 12 x 5.75 inches, Courtesy of .... Image #189
Magdalen Wong, "Milk Collection", 2010 collage of milk splashes cut from cere.... Image #190
Magdalen Wong, "Splash: milk marble", 2010 Inkjet print - triptych;  edition .... Image #191
Nene Humphrey, "Crossings #M", 2014 Archival Glicee Print Edition 2/5 Sheet: .... Image #193
Nene Humphrey, "Where air was other breath (Mapping Series)", 2015 Mixed medi.... Image #194
Riad Miah, "DME Drawing -- A Study", 2014 & "Platonic Solids", 2015. Image #195
Sol LeWitt, "Working Drawing for Splotch #3", 2000, Pencil on paper, Sheet: 8.... Image #196
Sol LeWitt, "Working Drawing for Splotch #3", 2000, Pencil on paper, Sheet: 8.... Image #197
Taney Roniger, "Inscape Series  (Diptych: Fenghuang #1, Alizarin Crimson)",  .... Image #198

Lesley Heller Workspace is pleased to present Splotch, a two-venue exhibition on the Lower East Side curated by Eileen Jeng. Splotch features artists whose work involves a methodical and controlled process of creating seemingly free-form or random daubs and spots. The title of the show is inspired by Sol LeWitt’s fiberglass pieces titled Splotches and their working drawings or “footprints.” The footprints of Splotch #3 will be exhibited for the first time at Lesley Heller Workspace. LeWitt’s 12-foot long sculpture Splotch #3, previously shown at New York’s The Met, will be on view at Sperone Westwater.

Splotch features works by Lynda Benglis, Walter Biggs, Elisabeth Condon, Nene Humphrey, Andreas Kocks, Sol LeWitt, Riad Miah, Jamie Powell, Taney Roniger, Karen Tompkins, Julia von Eichel, Aaron Williams, Magdalen Wong, and Jian-Jun Zhang.

The artists’ approaches are structured, yet left up to elements of chance and failure in the drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, and sculptures in the show. Some of the artistic processes include casting, cutting, and wrapping. Lynda Benglis continues to focus on the physicality of materials in Hot Spot, 1999, a biomorphic form cast in aluminum. Combining elements of drawing, painting, and architecture, Andreas Kocks utilizes cut paper and pins to create works that examine space and time. Meticulous and methodical, Julia von Eichel simultaneously embraces and conceals the underlying structure of wood dowels, wiffle balls, and thread with acrylic covered silk in her amorphous and jagged sculpture protruding from a corner.

Inspired by pop culture and cartoons, Jamie Powell’s paintings incorporate elements of chance and improvisation as she manipulates the canvas by dyeing, cutting, and tying pieces to create sculptural forms, revealing the underlying frame. Magdalen Wong appropriates found imagery in mass media and commercial packaging; familiar objects are decontextualized and abstracted in her cutout milk splashes. Carving into a painted MDF surface with a router, Aaron Williams recreates graffiti imagery in photographic sources, expanding the idea of mark marking and materials.

Using patterns and precise puncturing, Taney Roniger creates biomorphic and cellular-like forms, referencing landscapes, mythology, and geometric shapes found in nature. Walter Biggs’s abstract paintings of graphite, sand, and acrylic are the results of play between expressionist gesture and labor-intensive finishing processes.

Materials can ultimately dictate the outcome when they are released onto surfaces – the results can be unexpected and spontaneous. In his monoprint First Drop of Water (print series #1), Jian-Jun Zhang explores the physicality and connotations of water. He paints printing ink directly onto steel plates with calligraphy brushes before printing these gestural marks. Inspired by nature and her time in Shanghai, Elisabeth Condon begins with a pour of paint and then edits the surface by outlining dots, manipulating contours, and slicing paint. https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif 

Riad Miah combines a calculated approach of using drops of paint, geometric configurations, and spontaneous brush marks to create his abstract painting that depict cellular and amoeba-like forms. Nene Humphrey also explores biological systems in her sculptural and performative works consisting of two and three-dimensional cerebral and cellular forms of synthetic material. Influenced by the solar observations of the Italian astronomer, physicist, and philosopher Galileo Galilei in the early 17th century, Karen Tompkins creates abstracted paintings on insulation board that closely resemble these sunspot drawings.

With predetermined and self-imposed rules, these artists explore the boundaries of various mediums as well as the tension between control and spontaneity. They also examine the body, scientific and mathematical concepts, nature, pop culture, and mass media. Dichotomies examined include: absence and presence, fluidity and stability, geometric and organic, order and disorder.

An opening reception will take place at Lesley Heller Workspace on July 20 from 6-8 pm. Splotch will also be on view at Sperone Westwater at 257 Bowery from July 7 to August 5, 2016. A brochure will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.