Catalog 2 16

R E YN O L D S F I N E A RT presents

BINNIE BIRSTEIN, MIKE CHILDS, LINDA COLLETTA

For inquiries please contact:

Reynolds Fin e Art 96 Orange Street New Haven, CT 06510 203.498.2200 info@reynoldsfineart.com

www.reynoldsfineart.com

Linda Colletta I am interested in the alchemy of layering, where two unrelated ideas, when connected, become something else entirely, and likewise when pieces are removed and new story is revealed.

I feel most comfortable expressing through color, and I am inspired by the infinite possibilities of abstraction. To me, the most challenging part of abstraction is to find and maintain a balance between intention and absolute abandon. I am exploring the signature energy and unpredictability of movement expressed through purposefully thoughtless strokes and intentional gestures.

I grew up in a rural town, and then spent 16 years in NYC while studying and working in the arts. This background caused me to be deeply influenced by the beauty and serenity of the natural world and the grunge and decay of urban cities at the same time. I express this through layering, washes, drips, scribbles and textures.

I am endlessly fascinated by places where man & nature meet... like a telephone line across the sky, or a patch of grass in the middle of a cement jungle, or a fence marking the end of a rolling field. The line against the form is not only a source of beautiful abstraction but also speaks to our futile attempts as humans to contain or control this wild world.

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Linda Colletta Beckon and Bow Acrylic and pastel on unprimed, unbleached muslin with gallery wrapped edges 60” x 70”

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Linda Colletta Parallel Universe Mixed media acrylic and pastel on canvas 24” x 30”

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Linda Colletta Parallelogram I Mixed media acrylic and pastel on canvas 24” x 30”

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Linda Colletta Poised Perpendicular Mixed media acrylic and pastel on canvas 48” x 60”

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Linda Colletta Tropic Points Mixed media acrylic and pastel on canvas 36” x 48”

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Linda Colletta Tropic Points II Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas 20” x 48”

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Mike Ch ilds Growing up in Toronto in the 1970’s, I was surrounded by modern buildings and unexpected color occurrences in the kaleidoscopic urban environment, the arbitrary placement of signage in the city, abstract painting from the late twentieth century, American folk art quilts, and a various other visual and musical influences that all figure into my painting.

Half built and half demolished building sites serve as a source for the conceptual point of departure and for exciting formal relationships for my work. I view painting itself as a kind of construction site of ideas, a thing to be built up but not completed and always in flux.

My recent paintings employ abstract language of patterns, symbols, and structural references based upon preparatory photographs and sketches. The images exhibit disharmonious colors, disjointed patterns and off kilter organic elements which can suggest opposing spaces. It is my fascination with this kind of dissected urban visual reference that I explore and which is the main theme within the work.

Abstraction, I believe, can be a reckoning with the constantly changing environment, allowing one to reflect on how as humans we negotiate a chosen space bound by our culturally dictated perspective.

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Mike Childs 01 Acrylic and spray paint on canvas 32” x 34”

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Mike Childs Animal Behavior B Acrylic and spray paint on canvas 24” x 24”

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Mike Childs Animal Behavior C Acrylic and spray paint on canvas 24” x 24”

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Mike Childs Animal Behavior D Acrylic and spray paint on canvas 24” x 24”

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Mike Childs Tryplets Acrylic on canvas 14” x 22”

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Mike Childs On the Block Acrylic and spray paint on canvas 24” x 38”

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Bin nie Birstein My work is about energy and spatial ambiguity. Playing with analogies and double entendre, I create a distorted mix of reality, imagination, and space. My work is dark, ambiguous, and dreamlike with feelings of dissonance with a sense of mystery and unease prevail.

I have always worked in series and sequences, on multiple images at a time...segments creating a whole. My imagery involves layers of luscious colors, and off-angles.

Strong physical elements in the paintings come from the intensity with which I work the medium, by layering, cutting in, scraping, and manipulating the images with ink, oilstick, pencil, graphite, and tools to make marks on the surface and express feelings that motivate me. Although these works may incorporate a geometric framework, expressiveness becomes the ultimate driver of the compositions, one mark or layer leading to another and creating the sensations of movement, progression and dissonance.

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Binne Birstein A I R: Pool Draw Encaustic on panel, monotype 8” x 10” x 1”

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Binnie Birstein A I R: Upside Down Encaustic on panel, monotype 8” x 10” x 1”

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Binnie Birstein A I R I: Empty Encaustic on panel 30” x 40” x 2”

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Binnie Birstein A I R II: Full Encaustic on panel 30” x 40” x 2”

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Binnie Birstein A I R III: Splash Encaustic on panel 40” x 30” x 2”

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