Accordion Space

ACCORDION SPACE

ASCHELY CONE DORON L ANGBERG SUSAN LICHTMAN SANGR AM MA JUMDAR CL AIRE SHERMAN DIDIER WILLIAM

ACCORDION SPACE Curated by Laini Nemett September 6 – November 14, 2017

Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts Crowell and West Galleries Union College

opposite: Sangram Majumdar, Untitled, 2015

P

ainters make tangible the dynamic unfolding of space and time that we experience in any physical encounter. The canvas becomes the setting for a call and response between artist and subject, pushing and pulling forms, expanding and compressing space like a master accordionist. This exhibition highlights six painters who break apart tangible space and piece it back together in large-scale canvases that are at once intimate and resounding.

Each artist’s work is informed by nature, though the evidence of his or her subject matter varies from one to the next. Claire Sherman’s imagery comes from her experiences traveling. She alludes to specific places and dramatic landscapes, yet leaves their identities open as the paintings oscillate between abstraction and representation. Susan Lichtman finds her subject matter closer to home, almost exclusively painting scenes from the first floor of her house and her studio as a stage for unfolding moments that offer a poetic twist to the everyday. Doron Langberg also paints from his personal life, capturing those closest to him in casual, familiar moments. His bold color choices, gestural brushwork, and sensitive portraiture invite viewers into his relationships. For Sangram Majumdar, everything is fair game; he starts from observation — paper cut-outs in a dollhouse, the view into a hallway window at night — then, through concealing and revealing forms, the painting becomes a heavily documented archive of looking. The paintings of Aschely Cone play a similar game, vacillating between obstruction and entry, creating patterned veils, while also suggesting windows or doorways through which to travel. Camouflaging fragmented figures, shadows, and patterns, Didier William’s paintings weave recognizable forms with poured paint, etched wood, and stuccoed surfaces that collide in questions of race, gender, identity, and Haitian history.

Ranging from figurative narratives to abstract compositions, the paintings in this exhibition challenge the classical idea of figure-ground. In most of these works, foreground and background aren’t locked in their predictable places. With their use of heightened natural color and hide-and-seek subject matter, these paintings allude to the late 19th and early 20th century Intimist painters Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. While Intimists were known for their quiet, jewel-like paintings of small scale, these six contemporary painters all address a sense of closeness within large-scale canvases that seem to reach off the wall and into our space.

Exposing their hands in gestural mark-making and manipulated surfaces, Cone, Langberg, Lichtman, Majumdar, Sherman, and William reveal their processes in a way that invites the viewer into the act. The artists bring us in with familiar moments and push us back to take in the whole: their canvases, like accordions, modulating between a whisper and a bellow, and back again.

-Laini Nemett, Curator, Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting, Union College

opposite: Susan Lichtman, Studio Doors with Vacuum, 2016

Aschely Cone “My paintings investigate notions of doubleness – acts of veiling; entry and obstruction; patterns overlaid, intersecting and overtaking each other. The works unfold as their surfaces collapse, expand and shift.

The images draw from patterning systems seen in decorative art traditions, especially textile traditions with strong figure-ground relationships, and markings on surfaces/spaces that delineate action, such as those on game boards or playing fields.

Literally and metaphorically, the arch and the shield present as recurring motifs. The arch spans spatial depth and denotes a passageway or entry/exit. It suggests an opening, an absence, a possible future; it is passive. The shield obstructs, conceals, protects, represents; it is frontal, present and active. Both the central form/void and the peripheral form/void function as interdependent realms. The reading of one as solid form (shield) or spatial void (arch) is mutually dependent on the reading of the other as its opposite. The patterning in the work serves as a synecdoche for this relationship.

The large-scale canvases allow the works to hearken to a monumental architectural form and thus relate to the viewer’s body. At times, the painted arch creates the sensation of literal passageway, or its obstruction, heightening the experience of the spatial shifts in the works.”

Aschely Vaughan Cone received her MFA from the

include a matching scholarship for study at the

LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland

Skohegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the

Institute College of Art in 2016. In 2007 she received a

SMCM-MICA Artist House Teaching Fellowship, the

BA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis,

Hamiltonian Fellowship and The Henry Walters

MD; in 2012 she received an MA in Art History from

Traveling Fellowship. She is currently represented

Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Her awards

by The Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Black Shield II, 2016

Doron Langberg “My work is about closeness — closeness to the surface of my paintings, to my subjects, and to the viewer. I see my paintings as a conduit between the viewer and myself, through which my experiences become theirs. I’m compelled to paint an image when it comes together in my mind with a particular way of putting down paint or a certain color idea. The various ways I touch the surface of the painting articulate my relationship to the image and shape its emotional narrative. My paintings, made from observational drawings, depict people I’m affected by in the spaces that surround me. I think of the images I use as a sign pointing in the direction of the psychological world of the paintings, and the color and texture as carrying most of their emotional weight. In my work I focus on love and desire because they are both fundamental human experiences, but also what mark me as different. My work is a response to the subtle but pervasive dehumanization of queerness. The feeling that the social structure I live in was never intended to include my form of sexuality drives me to make work which asserts the validity and necessity of queerness in the greater narrative of human sexuality and identity.

Influenced by artists I admire, such as R.B Kitaj and Bonnard, I deploy mark making to “estrange” or “queer” my subjects, giving form to my point of view. By foregrounding color, gesture, and the tactility of paint I try to create a connection with a viewer that speaks to the shared sensations of the bodies we inhabit rather than the social categories that constrict us.”

Nisan and Idan in the Studio, 2015

Dad, 2016

Doron Langberg currently lives and works in Queens,

Artist Retreat, and the Queer Art Mentorship Program.

NY. He received his MFA from Yale and holds a BFA

Langberg’s work has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail,

from the University of Pennsylvania with a Certificate

New American Paintings, and Gorky’s Granddaughter

from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Langberg is a

and reviewed in Artsy, Riot Material, ArtPulse, Hyper-

recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant

allergic, NY Arts Magazine, Artcritical, the Philadelphia

and the Yale Schoelkopf Travel Prize. He is attending

Inquirer, and The Huffington Post. Langberg’s work is in

the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program, and participated

the collection of the PAFA Museum and the Hort Family

in Yaddo artist residency, 68 Projects residency, Asylum

Collection.

Susan Lichtman “Every home is a stage, and I paint my home with actors both observed and imagined. Family members, pets and guests perform in the intimate, deep space of domestic architecture.

I don’t plan out my compositions beforehand. I begin by painting one thing: maybe a flower, an arm or a beam of sunlight. Then I parse out what could be beside, behind and in front of that thing. I look past bouquets and out through open doors. I try to record the distances I perceive in a house – the vast plane of a table or the psychological space between figures occupying the same territory.

As I paint I conjure up unplanned narratives. I realize I’m revealing small things that have been on my mind: a story in the news, a time of day or year, a memory of those unsettled moments when we are about to get to work or start a conversation.”

Cookout, 2016

Off, 2016

Susan Lichtman received her BA degree from Brown

those at Smith, Swarthmore and Barton Colleges, and

University and an MFA from Yale School of Art. In 2017

she will have an upcoming show in 2018 at Gross McCleaf

she had solo exhibitions at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Proj-

Gallery in Philadelphia. Lichtman has won awards from

ects in New York and at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum

the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the

of Hollins University where she was the Frances Niederer

Tiffany foundation. She is on the faculty of Brandeis

Artist-in-Residence. Other recent exhibitions include

University and lives in southeastern Massachusetts.

Sangram Majumdar “My paintings depict a compression of our world, meant to be inhabited. They willingly embrace the haptic experience that is so particular to the medium. I aim to make work that re-engages a conversation between the viewer and the subject, opening the door for narrative, memories, and direct sensory encounters. Time slows down.

I have casually and cautiously referred to my studio as my home. This “home” sets the stage for rooms. These rooms in turn give form to paintings. Places, images and words that move unassociated around in my head are given free reign here. The paintings are made from looking at small altered dioramas and collages, often no bigger than a letter size paper. In them, the recurring anthropomorphic structures and architectural forms appear as silhouettes of people and objects that are part of my past and present. They become contours of things I see around me, places that I remember.”

Starburst, 2015

Twilight Echoes, 2013

Born in Kolkata, India, Sangram Majumdar has an MFA

Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American

from Indiana University and a BFA from the Rhode

Academy of Arts and Letters, NY; US Embassy, Sierra

Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibition venues

Leone, and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art,

include Barbara Davis Gallery, TX; Asia Society Texas

Nagoya, Japan. Awards include a MacDowell Fellow-

Center, TX; Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, NY; Uni-

ship, a residency at Yaddo, the 2009-10 Marie Walsh

versity of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and the Kresge Art

Sharpe Studio Space Program Grant, and a MICA

Museum, MI. Recent selected group exhibition venues

Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching. Majumdar

include Geary Contemporary, NY; James Cohan Gallery,

lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Professor of

NY; Gallery Zürcher, NY, Come Together: Surviving

Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Sandy, curated by Phong Bui, Brooklyn, NY; the 2010

Claire Sherman “I address variations on tragedy, romanticism, and ambivalence throughout my work. I hope to propel the viewer into a claustrophobic and unstable world through a perspective that shimmies between representation and abstraction. The situations can be familiar, even as banal as those one might glance while passing in a car, but certainly not intimate. The landscapes in the paintings reference idealistic visions of the sublime, but become less known and defined than that genre might imply. The locations might be anywhere or anything: tropical, arctic, lunar, or mundane. Yet, despite the curiosity this variety implies, stifling emptiness pervades each unraveling environment in the work. The medley of imagery presented eliminates the need to identify the actual place – these are not paintings that seek to portray a specific view or experience. They address the ubiquity of imagery we associate with the genre of landscape, nullifying a sense of particularity. The paintings become their own locations.”

Trees and Night, 2016

Trees, 2016

Claire Sherman received her BA from the University of

Aurobora, San Francisco; and Hof and Huyser Gallery,

Pennsylvania and her MFA from the School of the Art

Amsterdam. Recent group exhibitions include the

Institute of Chicago. She has completed residencies at

Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art,

the Terra Foundation for American Art, the MacDowell

Portland; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco;

Colony, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Yaddo,

Suburban Riverwest, Milwaukee; Gallery Seomi, Seoul;

The Albers Foundation, and the Lower Manhattan

The New Gallery, Austria; and the Neuberger Museum

Cultural Council’s Workspace program. Recent exhibi-

of Art, Purchase, NY. Sherman is an Associate Professor

tions include solo shows at DC Moore Gallery, NY;

at Drew University and is represented by DC Moore

Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago; KMAC Museum, Louisville;

Gallery in New York and Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago.

Houldsworth Gallery, London; DCKT, New York;

Didier William “My paintings yield image and form to the liminal and unnamable space occupied by diaspora communities. My work has always been preoccupied with imagining unconventional bodies and specifically questioning black and queer identity formation. Materially I find no value in demarcating between printmaking, painting, collage, and drawing as they combine, collide, and accumulate into the surfaces of my objects. I draw on historical content, Haitian Vodou symbolism, and personal narrative to inform not only my research, but also my material choices. I use “Camouflage” as an umbrella term that refers to an alternative presence that both denies and reaffirms the physical body. In this way the body is omnipresent. The acts of figurative distortion, collage/patterning, and ornamentation synchronize to form a permeable membrane between the body and its failed container. I’m just as interested in the persistent failure of this container as I am in the autonomy of the body itself. Camouflage implies no adversary, but does immediately indicate deep tensions with one’s environment, so much so that a renegotiation of terms is necessary. My surfaces – where the body is formed through cuts, stains, and the residue of historical narratives – become sites of convergence and collision, marking both the fragility and the persistence of black humanity.”

Kochon sa a lou / This pig is heavy, 2017

Everything is you, 2015

Didier William is Associate Professor of Art and Chair of

and the Bronx Museum. His most recent solo projects

the MFA program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the

include “Didier William” at Gallerie Schuster in Berlin

Fine Arts. Prior to joining the faculty at PAFA in 2016 he

Germany, and “Camouflage” at Hap Gallery in Portland,

taught at Vassar College, Yale School of Art, Columbia

OR. He was a 2013 Artist in Residence at the Marie

University and SUNY Purchase School of Art + Design.

Walsh Sharpe Art Foundations’ Space Program in

He received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from

Brooklyn, NY, as well as a 2014 recipient of the Bronx

Yale School of Art, and a BFA in painting from the

Museums Artists in the Marketplace Residency. He is a

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD.

2017 recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Residency at

His work has been exhibited in various galleries includ-

the International Studio and Curatorial Program in

ing Fredericks and Freiser Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery and

Brooklyn, NY. He currently lives and works between

Moskowitz Bayse in San Francisco, Sloan Fine Art,

Philadelphia, PA and Brooklyn, NY.

CHECKLIST

All work is courtesy of the artist unless otherwise noted.

Aschely Cone

Claire Sherman

Black Shield II, 2016, Oil and acrylic on Muslin,

Trees and Night, 2016, Oil on canvas, 84 x 66 in

96 x 72 in

Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York Trees, 2016, Oil on canvas, 84 x 66 in

Doron Langberg

Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York

Nisan and Idan in the Studio, 2015, Oil on linen,

Moss and Branches, 2016 , Mixed media on paper,

57 x 46 in

6 x 4 1/2 in (image); 12 x 9 in (paper)

Courtesy of the artist and 1969 Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York

Dad, 2016, Oil on canvas, 55 x 80 in

Trees, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 6 x 4 1/2 in

Courtesy of the artist and 1969 Gallery

(image); 12 x 9 in (paper)

Gray Umbrella, 2015, Oil on linen, 45 x 60 in Courtesy of the artist and 1969 Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York Trees and Night, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 6 x 4 1/2 in (image); 12 x 9 in (paper)

Susan Lichtman

Courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York

Cookout, 2016, Oil on linen, 64 x 58 in

Didier William

Studio Doors with Vacuum, 2016, Oil on linen,

Kochon sa a lou / This pig is heavy, 2017, Acrylic,

64 x 58 in Off, 2016, Oil on linen, 52 x 40 in

woodcarving, and collage on panel, 48 x 60 in.

Everything is you, 2015, Acrylic, collage, and ink on panel, 48 x 60 in

Sangram Majumdar Twilight Echoes, 2013, Oil on linen, 38 x 42 in Starburst, 2015, Oil on linen, 84 x 70 in Untitled, 2015, Gouache, acrylic & pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in (unframed) Interior Study 1, 2015, Gouache, acrylic & pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in (unframed) Interior Landscape Study 1, 2015, Gouache, acrylic & pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in (unframed) Interior Landscape Study 2, 2015, Gouache, acrylic & pastel on paper, 9 x 12 in (unframed)

Union College Department of Visual Arts 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308 518.388.6785 For more information: union.edu/visualarts ISBN: 978-1-939968-14-2 All of the works in this exhibition are held in copyright through the artist unless otherwise noted; all rights reserved.

Publication copyright Š 2017 Union College.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the publisher and artists.

Exhibition and Catalogue Sponsored by the Union College Department of Visual Arts Edited by Laini Nemett Design by Elizabeth Laub Graphic Design Printing by Snyder Printer opposite: Claire Sherman, Trees and Night, 2016