CONSTRUCTS - org contemporary

"org contemporary presents

CONSTRUCTS: Investigations of Formal Construction in Contemporary Image Making

saturday, november 14, 2009 through friday, december 4, 2009
opening reception saturday, november 14 from 6-10pm


org contemporary is pleased to present: CONSTRUCTS: Investigations of Formal Construction in Contemporary Image Making. Participating artists are Ryan Parker, Ai Krasner and Gretchen Batcheller, three recent graduates of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. All three artists work demonstrates a concise understanding of historical methods, yet employ that knowledge towards the creation of work that engages in the current dialog surrounding formal construction in contemporary image making.

Ryan Parker’s prints, drawings and wall installation work constructs architectural space to be explored and experienced. that architecture, however, is always the starting point for his own visual language as an image maker. The specificity of the works ambiguity allows for an experiential contemplation

Ai Krasner’s work exists in the intermediary space between painting and sculpture. She is exploring the borders between the two genres as well as those of image and materiality, object and surface.

Gretchen Batcheller’s paintings stem from a deep-rooted interest in the relationship between structure and place, rational and irregular. She is taking abstraction beyond modernism's pursuit for a pure painting and inserting a cultural and contextual framework.

CONSTRUCTS is curated by Brian Barr, a Detroit native. Barr received his MFA from The American University in Washington, DC He currently lives and works in Detroit. He has exhibited his own work extensively throughout the country; this is his first major curatorial project.

org contemporary specializes in solo or two person exhibitions of local and national contemporary artists. They are located on the third floor of building 2 at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit, MI.

gallery hours: by appointment" - org contemporary's facebook event

This is the piece by Ai Krasner ^

^Ryan Parker is a quiet guy, very friendly, and very energetic in his words and actions. He works with silk screening, patterning, and repetition. He uses line, architecture, shape, dimensionality, and layers to create intricate buildings, hallways, dungeons, rooms, and streets. But they are by no means solid landscapes or interiors. His images are of the architecture of the mind. The risk taking, the mystery, the depth, the intrepid confusion of our ideas and how they are "construct"ed in our mind's eye. In his travels he has seen Piranesi's Prison Etchings  and has been recently been influenced by modern street spray paint art, the layering aspect evident in his work. The piece above was my favorite of the show. It was done about 4 hours before hand, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying so. A man after my own tune, work does not always need to take massive amounts of time. I talked with Gretchen about this and she agrees. Her paintings take months to come together, but 6 can be produced in two weeks. The massive amount of time is spent thinking about the piece, taking in influences, reading literature, contemplating. These ideas will come out in the piece, it is unavoidable. Ryan's work is smooth and so intensely deep. The piece above works with the corner of the wall to throw the viewer forward into the depths. Pure Beauty of form, and a real sense for the space and atmosphere.

^Gretchen Batheller (in the salmon coat) has an instantly recognizable warm personality. She is very excited about her work, and will discuss it with anyone. One of the things that she strives for in her work is to make people stay with a painting, for to her that is the biggest compliment. Her paintings vibrate with color and energy. They are comfortable, but extravagant, pleasant and vibrant, an energetic view of the world outside her window. Gretchen paints cityscapes from her memories of places, of car trips. Using a collection of photos to give herself an idea of what she wants to come across, but not taking directly from them, she paints layer by layer, section by section, each building off of each other and morphing into something that may not have been the original idea. While painting she will turn the canvas around, to mix things up for herself, so that she isn't caught up in her own world, but rather relates to others who would be looking at the painting for the first time. Her paintings are the anti-blink of memories. They are the mind's video still. If you were to only remember one millisecond of vision: this motion, this color, this complex intelligent blur would be it.