Our memories are our connection to the past, present, and future. Yet like a kaleidoscope, our recollections morph and recombine into new but similar stories as time passes, until only the gist remains. Fade To Gist at The Yard features the work of five artists, Rachel Citrino, Cathleen Hughes, Alan Lankin, Justin Rubich, and Barbara Straussberg. Visually these colorful, layered works recall the kaleidoscopic nature of memory. Building collaged layers of color, shape, and texture, Rachel Citrino, Alan Lankin and Justin Rubich create a visual representation of how our lived experiences build upon and affect one another to form our view of the world. Citrino’s large abstract works explore what connects ancient meanings to contemporary ideas. As Lankin shapes his works layer by layer, he envisions space and time converging into a two-dimensional surface resembling a landscape. Rubich’s mixed media works seek to create a viewing experience that is unreliable; one that wavers between being permanent and temporary. Cathleen Hughes and Barbara Straussberg’s works are reflections on shifts in understanding. Hughes’ pieces are a meditation on space, time, matter, and her own experiences. She creates work that reflects a future harmony she wishes to bring to society through her work. Straussberg’s work evolved after experiencing a loss to reflect themes of origin, aging, memory, passage of time, and reverence for her elders. These works invite the viewer to reflect on their own lived experiences and the process of remembering and forgetting, inclusion and exclusion.
Cover Image
Cathleen Hughes Untitled 9 (detail), 2021 Acrylic on canvas 36 x 48˝ $950 Left Image
Alan Lankin Mist (detail), 2018 Gouache on paper Framed 14 x 12.25” $175
Fade to Gist January 28 - May 15, 2022
Left to Right
Justin Rubich Flying Geese Gas Puddle, 2016 Acrylic and duct tape on canvas 16 x 12” $475 Lock, Step, Shift, Click, 2016 Acrylic and duct tape on canvas 16 x 12” $475
Justin Rubich Stacked (with detail), 2012 Duct tape, MDF mounted on paper 24.6 x 18.6˝ $400
While my work isn’t explicitly about any one memory or experience, I often work in ways that represent or reflect on the disconnect between perception and reality. I am interested in the inherent loss between naming, knowing, and recalling. A viewer might wonder whether the source images were observed or imagined. What clues are left within the final image that might provide an understanding of the work’s relationship to an original object or moment? - Justin Rubich
Barbara Struassberg Passages/Ebb and Flow, 2020 Acrylic, handmade paper, and graphite on canvas 46 x 42˝ $5,500
My approach to making art is intuitive and experimental – employing a variety of techniques such as dripping, rubbing, pouring, tearing, and mark-making. The act of painting is what interests me; the steps I go through to build up the surface and break it down. Through walks in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon, I capture the feeling of being in nature by transforming my physicality and the trees and rivers around me into line and paint. My own gestural language reveals a sense of passing through time and space. My memory tells a story of a particular place – referencing the past, present and future. The excitement of discovery and the unknown is forever motivating to continue with my art. - Barbara Straussberg
Barbara Straussberg Wissahickon/Forest Glow (with detail) 2016 Mixed media acrylic on wood 50 x 42 x 2.5˝ $5,500
My process with these works involves using a wide variety of materials, mediums and methods. I like being able to directly manipulate the physical materials in these small works. I shape the works step by step, layer by layer, and the end result reveals itself as I progress. I am imagining space and time converging into a two-dimensional surface resembling a landscape which is influenced by memories of places I’ve been and things that I’ve seen. - Alan Lankin
Alan Lankin Out West II (with detail), 2020 Collage, gouache, watercolor and acrylic on paper 15 x 11˝ $375
Left to right
Alan Lankin Frameworks (19/17), 2019 Gouache and artists crayon 10.5 x 6.75˝ $300 Frameworks (19/18), 2019 Gouache and artists crayon 10.5 x 6.75˝ $300
Installation view, The Yard (left to right)
Rachel Citrino Lifelines 517 ( with detail), 2017 Framed collage 25 x 37” $750 Rising Up, 2018 Acrylic and ink 25 x 25” $1,850.00
We usually refer to memory of past but there is also future memory, which Carl Jung has written about. Future memory is what interests me. Applying what is known and experienced in the present or past to what can be extrapolated into the future. My work takes liberties in abstraction with a desire to impact the viewer with this process. - Rachel Citrino
Left to Right
Rachel Citrino Net Illusions, 2018 Acrylic and ink 25 x 25” $1,850 Parallels On Earth, 2018 Acrylic and ink 25 x 25˝ $1,850
Left to Right
Cathleen Hughes Untitled 3 (detail) Untitled 3, 2022 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24” $500
Cathleen Hughes Untitled 5 (with detail), 2021 Acrylic on wood 32 x 24˝ $500
My art has been my life source for as long as I remember. It became my best friend, my inspiration,my recording. It became my way of giving,my way of connecting. When it was validated so was I. I remember inventing discovering and learning. Then I went on to teach and serve with all of it. I look to the future doing more and enjoying and loving it! Since I work in series always, these paintings are a sample of three different series and reflect paintings past present and future. - Cathleen Hughes
Left to Right
Barbara Straussberg Wissahickon/Intimate Two, 2018 Acrylic on paper 7 x7” $850
Cathleen Hughes Untitled 2, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24” $500
1400 N. American Street, suite 314 Philadelphia, PA (215) 235.3405 www.inliquid.org
21 S. 11th Street Philadelphia, PA
All works are available for purchase on Artsy.