Art review: 'Repetition, Rhythm and Pattern' at Space

at Space
1 / 5
Heidi Murrin | Trib Total Media
'Illumination + Snack' by Kate McGraw at the 'Repitition, Rhythm and Pattern' exhibit at Space
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‘Repetition, Rhythm and Pattern'

When: Through June 28 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays

Where: Space, 812 Liberty Ave., Downtown

Details: 412-325-7723 or spacepittsburgh.org
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By Kurt Shaw
Wednesday, June 3, 2015, 9:00 p.m.
Updated 15 hours ago


Artists often employ repetition, rhythm and pattern in the creation of their
artwork, especially in the creation of abstract work. Think of it as something
to hang your mental hat on, whether artist or viewer. After all, the
recognition of pattern in all things is very much at the core of rational


l thought, the very thing that separates humans from other animals.

At Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Space gallery, Downtown, “Repetition, Rhyth
m
and Pattern” presents artworks concerned with just that.

A traveling exhibit in its fourth iteration, the show's Pittsburgh
stop is its largest to date, including new site-specific works by
artists Kim Beck, Alex Paik and Lilly Zuckerman.

It includes larger installations by artists Corey Escoto, Brian Giniewski,

Kate McGraw and Anna Mikolay and works by Megan Cotts, Crystal Gregory,

Helen O'Leary, David Prince and the show's organizer, Lindsey Landfried.

“I wanted this exhibit to be an invitation for people who may think they
don't like abstract art to take another, sometimes lighter, look,”
Landfried says.

“Mediums like music and performance are appreciated by wide audiences,
and they heavily use repetition, rhythm and pattern. Thus, in this show,
each of the artists works with these characteristic elements of abstraction,
such as geometry, monochromatic or limited color, and simple materials,
in much the same way.

Many of the pieces incorporate geometric shapes in regular patterns.

And some, as in the case of Kim Beck's charcoal drawings of fences,
push the shapes into irregular patterns.

Beck's work, all titled “Construction Fence,” are based on the kind of
orange vinyl fencing usually found around construction sites.

“It's a series that records the way these fences shift, move and tear
based on use, wind, time and weather,” says Beck, who lives in Park
Place, near Frick Park.

Not far away, arranged on a long table in the middle of the gallery,
the installation “Paperweights” by Brian Giniewski of Syracuse, N.Y.
is part of a series he has been making since 2011.

The format, Giniewski says, is a tongue-in-cheek jab about ceramic objects

not being taken as seriously as other art forms, “and jokes about amateur
ceramic pieces being paperweights or doorstops,” he says.

“On a formal level, I like that the ‘Paperweight' compositions allow
for a lot of flexibility and are arranged slightly differently each time
they are shown,” he says. “I like artwork that is open to interpretation and

change and is not trying to hit people over the head with some didactic agenda.

“I love experimenting with color, surface and composition, and the
‘Paperweight' pieces give me a lot of freedom to play in the studio
while making hundreds of little paintings and dozens of sculptural
objects.”

When the individual compositions come together, the flat pieces of
paper are “activated” into three-dimensional space rather than being
flattened and framed.

“I like that they are accessible and become objects in the composition,”
Giniewski says.


Instead of thinking about rhythm, repetition and pattern in the formal
sense, Corey Escoto of Shadyside made “I'd Like to Solve the Puzzle”
in 2008 while “thinking about a pattern of inequity of opportunity

and a rapidly shrinking middle class,” he says.

The “Wheel of Fortune”-style layout lures viewers to fill in the blanks,

but the completed phrase is less than reassuring.

Brooklyn-based Helen O'Leary displays several painted assemblage

sculptures that she says are “a memoir of sorts, of making do and
figuring out how to reapply meaning to things.

“The small pieces in the Space show are from a larger body of work,”
she says. “Paintings that form their own shadows and whose construction
are part of their subject matter.”

These smaller abstract assemblages “obliquely talk about a body that
has taken a few hits but was carrying on with dignity and a simple
beauty,” she says.

As to be expected, some works are the product of obsession.

“Illumination + Snack” by Brooklyn-based Kate McGraw was begun in 2013.

A large scroll laid out on the gallery floor, it looks like a stained-glass
window design full of colorful geometric shapes.

McGraw says she has been working on it in sections, mostly because of

working in tight quarters on tables much smaller than the span of the



scroll. And, thus, for the same reasons, visitors are privy to view
only part of the scroll as displayed here.


“I like to think of the scroll as having a kind of formal kinship
with Japanese landscape paintings and Torah scrolls,” McGraw
says. “I do not see this piece as religious, however, but it is
the product of my devotion to it, and when I'm making it, my mind
does wander to colors and textures from the Catholic churches we
used to go to when I was young.”

The remaining works are just as compelling. And even though each
artist has been making work that has a visual familiarity piece
to piece, each comes from widely differing interests.

That's what piqued Landfried's attention to organize an exhibit
around formal elements in the first place.

“Repetition, rhythm and pattern are efficient tools; they're useful
to the mind for digesting and organizing,” she says. “I think its
part of why artists are drawn to use them.”

Kurt Shaw is the art critic for Trib Total Media. He can be reached

at kshaw@tribweb.com.

Read more: http://triblive.com/aande/museums/8459006-74/says-pattern-mcgraw#ixzz3c6pukZ4h
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