Nancy Hoffman Gallery’s first fall exhibition, entitled “Atmospherics,” new paintings
by Linda Mieko Allen, opens on September 9th and continues through October 19th.
Each of Allen’s exhibitions focuses around a theme or conceptual framework. “Atmospherics,” the work of the past three years... Read more
Nancy Hoffman Gallery’s first fall exhibition, entitled “Atmospherics,” new paintings
by Linda Mieko Allen, opens on September 9th and continues through October 19th.
Each of Allen’s exhibitions focuses around a theme or conceptual framework. “Atmospherics,” the work of the past three years, examines states of energy and currents in the atmosphere as well as communication. Allen says: “it makes reference to phenomena of interference and their impact on the surrounding environment.” Following her last body of work, “Territories,” which addressed issues of boundaries, transition, transformation, balance, place; a theme that naturally followed a move from the West to the East Coast, “Atmospherics” explores less tangible more evanescent issues. To create this series, Allen had in mind a new process involving layering, transferring pigment, a new approach to a complex build-up of surface, one of her signature painting characteristics. It took her a year, while on a fellowship in Roswell, New Mexico, to perfect a unique painting system.
Allen describes her process:
“Using thin watercolor like acrylic paints and ink, I apply the paint in drops or larger amounts to a 4ml. plastic sheet, folding it over and manipulating it several times, allowing the paint to dry on the plastic surface, and I then transfer the paint gestures and arabesques to paper. The process becomes my palette as I cut out varying shapes and transfer them to an aluminum panel. The rest is drawing, alchemy and atmosphere.”
Allen writes of this new body of work, which continues her on-going investigation of place and displacement:
“The work in this show approaches form and space in a striking manner as each holds equal value. While the work is abstract, it alludes to physical space and systems or their attributes, such as architecture, support, structure. These works feel like possible extensions of the natural and un-natural world through the filter of a human medium. Key elements in these hybrid works of paint manipulation and drawing are space, tension, systems, transitional state.”
