FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OVER THE LINE
Works by Andrea Fried, Guigui Kohon, Joyce Perry, Judith Pratt
Opening Reception: Thursday August 8, 2019, 5-8pm
Closing Reception: Saturday October 12, 2-6pm
Show dates: August 8 – October 12, 2019
1429 Iris St NW, Washington DC 20012
Andrea Fried’s paintings seem familiar, but ultimately prove surprising. In this central painting of Fried’s modern triptych, the focal point is an oval, suggestive of both traditional “oval portraits” and the egg, symbol of origin and generation. Containing no representational contour, the portrait frame is an empty shell. Running through this triptych is the provocative suggestion that life is not static portraiture, but continuity.
Guigui Kohon’s work, drawn from her Argentine background, explores landscapes defined by contrast and contradiction: between the rural and urban, natural and synthetic, past and future. Quasi-surrealist, Kohon explores doubt, mystery, and disagreement. Looking at a Kohon painting is like experiencing a lucid dream, because in dreams, we face unknowns that resist conscious naming. Also reminiscent of the texture of skin, Kohon’s line-drawn cityscapes imply that our bodies are encased in plots under tension. A Kohon landscape is a remote place in which the spectator may travel with silent, imperceptible motion.
Joyce Perry’s hyperreal portraiture foregrounds humans living everyday lives, “photo-bombed” by intriguing background elements that challenge the anthropomorphism of much contemporary representational art. An attempt to crystallize the contradictions inherent in the auto-ethnography of the anthropocene, Perry’s work involves extreme variations of texture produced by manipulation of the paint. This manipulation injects emotion into the captured moment and creates empathy for the subject, underscoring landscape’s need for human connection.
Judith Pratt, mixed media artist, challenges traditional artistic self-definition by mixing genres and materials. Her refusal to define herself in relation to a particular medium or genre supports experimentation with both theme and scale. The result is a continually evolving visual language comprised of three-dimensional forms, line drawing reminiscent of wood engraving and other methods of art reproduction, the undulating forms of relief maps, seismography, and 2- and 3-dimensional space. The resulting work raises questions about the role of lines, shapes, and positive/ negative space in visual art and mental theater.
Now celebrating 41 years in the nation’s capital, Zenith is recognized for its unique mix of contemporary art in a wide variety of media, style and subject. The gallery provides high-quality acquisition, art consulting, commissioning, appraisal and framing services, through its gallery/salon/ sculpture garden off 16th Street at 1429 Iris St NW, WDC 20012. Zenith also curates rotating exhibits at the Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, WDC 20004.