Published on Flat Rate Contemporary online.
Artists are masters of responding to current events and cultural moments with innovative means. Prior to the invention of photography, artists acted as visual scribes, recording information with their arsenal of skills. Eventually, photography took hold as a more accurate tool for representing life. But, artists continued to find ways to communicate what cameras could not. Landscape, an ever-prevalent subject in photography and painting, has been transformed and reshaped by the work of artists for centuries. The pastoral scenes of the Hudson River School painters are no longer the only works that come to mind when one utters the word “landscape.” The selection of work in Flat Rate Contemporary 10 (FRC10), on view now through November 15, 2021, is an exhibition of contemporary drawings, paintings, and mixed media artworks that address themes of contemporary life when framed through an expanded lens of landscape.
The diverse collection of artwork in this exhibition reveals that there is much more to gain from the expanded notion of landscape in our current times. The twelve artists represented in FRC10 have provided familiar spaces; geographical locations; emotional, physiological, and fabricated landscapes that express the complexities of contemporary experience.
One can’t help but notice the variety of materials and processes employed across distinct compositions and subject matter from the group of selected artists. The abstract works from Lydia Kinney, John Paul Kesling, and Andy Demczuk balance the textures and striking formal elements in the work of Haleigh Collins, Grant Akiyama, Beatrice Modisett, and Dana O’Malley. In contrast, the work from Eric Diehl, Emily Tironi, Lee Piechocki, Arpa Mukhopadhyay, and Zayn Qahtani utilize representation and recognizable subject matter. The group of work is a noteworthy slice of the multitude of instances of landscape in contemporary art today.
Lydia Kinney’s God Tier Dome, Acrylic on Panel, 12x12 inches, 2021
The play on color and light in Lydia Kinney’s “Mountain” and “God Tier Dome” are reminiscent of electric hues at dawn or dusk. The abstracted spaces in Kinney’s paintings highlight the circular shapes and become moonlike against high-contrast areas of magenta, purple, and blue. Kinney employs compositional framing devices, inviting viewers to travel through portals and soak into an intergalactic environment. The formal elements in Kinney’s psychedelic landscapes usher the eye to the shapes in Beatrice Modisett’s “Shaped I-IV.” Modisett appreciates the simplicity of charcoal, embracing the variety of marks achieved on toned paper. The shapes appear akin to trees, snow, or clouds. The resulting monochromatic works feel blurry, like double-exposed photographs or a foggy window on a stormy afternoon.
As opposed to Modisett’s work, Grant Akiyama’s “Receipt #010” and “Receipt #018” take advantage of remarkably familiar everyday material. Akiyama’s receipts floating on a clean, white background accentuate the textures of crinkled pieces of paper that one might find at the bottom of a backpack, transforming them into a mirror-like surface that reflects a moment in time--like receiving proof of an everyday transaction. With the crumpled receipts mimicking the physical contours of topography, Akiyama’s work also addresses the subjective experience of the landscape through daily schedules and routines.
Grant Akiyama’s Receipt #0010, Receipt on Paper, 15x11 inches, 2020
Zayn Qahtani’s “Secrets of Samash” depicts Samash, a Mesopotamian god of the sun, in the center of a golden-colored frame surrounded by rays and symbols. Samash, also known as the solar deity, exercises the power of light over darkness and evil. Qahtani’s work exudes a spiritual aura and the anthropomorphic illustration carries meaning beyond the surface, which is painted with pigments created from plants and earth. Painters from the Hudson River School were celebrated for their depiction of light, so it seems fitting to include “Secrets of Shamash” in a contemporary conversation about landscape and to acknowledge this representation of luminescence.
Dana O’Malley’s pieces complement the rest of the works in FRC10 with the use of a vast array of materials, textures, and detritus. The effect of these assemblages is a tactile representation of landscape, considering the crunchy, lumpy, or rough-to-the-touch feeling O’Malley’s work exudes. The abstract compositions and visceral materials married with paper pulp perform the physicality of landscape. The winding lines and rhythmic patterns in “Nesting into the Wind” evoke the sound and feeling of a brisk wind against your face on a fall day.
Like O’Malley’s work, Haleigh Collins’ cotton paper pieces also employ textural materials that build upon a surface. “Paper 1” conveys a webbed, net-like pattern in a muted color palette with a horizon line. The interlacing lines of the cotton paper feel diagrammatic, as if illustrating the connections of a family tree or acting as a visual representation of a computer-generated program. These intersections remind the viewer that networks of relationships and connections to friends, family, or co-workers embody their own social landscape: each individual carries a unique maze of relationships that continues to transform as life progresses. Considering the current state of technology, it’s nearly impossible to evaluate Collins’ “Paper 1” without contemplating that the internet is an infinite web of information which records our bonds to people, products, location, and interests--much like the pattern observed in this piece.
Haleigh Collins’ Paper 1, Cotton Paper, 11x15 inches, 2021
Emily Tironi’s collages implement a variety of media and speak the language of landscape unlike that of the other works in this exhibition. Found imagery depicts figures in wheelchairs that exude a sense of celebration with titles “Disability Pride” and “Disability Utopia.” Tironi’s work acts as an envoy of the current political landscape, specifically the navigation of accessibility issues. Tironi embraces the intangible of collage with the representation of emotion through language, color, and recognizable imagery. Like Tironi’s pieces, Arpa Mukhopadhyay’s “Untitled” also deals in figure-based work. Two figures sit in a dungeon-esque space, to the left of a moonlit scene peeking through a barred window. Both artists’ works seem like responses to the social and political landscape of living through a pandemic--as does Eric Deihl’s “Killer Car” series, of which the piece “Killer Car: Flight” evokes an immediate reaction. The flying, flaming car reminds the viewer that because of the pandemic, 2020 is often referred to in common parlance as the year of the “dumpster fire.” As Deihl has captured the car mid-flight, shadows are cast upon a rocky desert ground. And then perhaps it isn’t a response to the pandemic, but rather an homage to the 1991 film Thelma and Louise.
Lee Piechocki’s In the Night: Pink, Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Paper, 12x9 inches, 2021
Lee Piechocki’s paintings include more conventional representations of flora, depicted in green, orange, pink, and yellow. The leaves contrast against a splotchy, black background with bits of color sprinkled throughout. The series suggests a connection to Warhol’s flower prints, with a graphic feeling of color against black and hard-edged shapes. Andy Demczuk’s drawing “Oh Hey” shares a graphic, patterned quality to Piechocki’s work. Demczuk engages a two-point perspective, giving the feeling of a roadway surrounded by various trees made up of colorful patterns and lines. The marker drawing is a welcome inclusion with the other work, exuding a watercolor-like vibe with areas of pooled or splotchy pigment. John Paul Kesling’s playful color palette in “Rhythm” feels like taking a romp around a dreamscape. The dashed lines could be a waterfall overhead or a storm blowing in after a changing wind. When regarded with Demczuk’s work still fresh in one’s mind, the two make quite a kindred pairing of imagined landscapes that could feel like reality in a dream. As one’s eye traipses around the final handful of works in the exhibition, hands, heads, and melting perspective lines start to appear. Demczuk and Keslings’ work begin to morph into surrealistic environments evocative of Dali’s dreamscapes, reminding us that artists have always been inventing and reinventing landscapes.