Carl E Hazlewood and David Eichholtz Gallery Discussion - part 1

David Richard Gallery is pleased to debut Heather McGill’s newest series of artworks in the presentation, Invisible Bloom, her second solo exhibition with the Gallery.

The presentation includes 10 new paintings produced over the past 30 months during the pandemic. The new paintings were created with the artist’s novel process as she describes in the statement below. The compositions are abstract while the imagery is from the natural world and specifically from readymade fabrics and lace mass produced for women’s clothing and draperies. Each painting has many layers of imagery and paint that is then sanded to reveal colors and patterns below. Looking closer reveals floral and insect motifs bringing nature into the patterning and overall psychedelic feel as well as designs from iconic fashion designers.

Art historical references, numerous binaries, and subversions anchor the new work in painting, but McGill’s processes are rooted in sculpture, which dominated most of her studio practice and teaching career. Hence, the casting process with gel medium and textiles as stencils for patterns and images, as well as the use of automotive paints and lacquers comes naturally to the artist. The additions of painted and coordinated imagery on borders, and often more than one, functions as a frame, but also adds dimensionality and depth to the paintings and hence, making them object-like and co-locating them as sculpture.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to debut Heather McGill’s newest series of artworks in the presentation, Invisible Bloom, her second solo exhibition with the Gallery.

The presentation includes 10 new paintings produced over the past 30 months during the pandemic. The new paintings were created with the artist’s novel process as she describes in the statement below. The compositions are abstract while the imagery is from the natural world and specifically from readymade fabrics and lace mass produced for women’s clothing and draperies. Each painting has many layers of imagery and paint that is then sanded to reveal colors and patterns below. Looking closer reveals floral and insect motifs bringing nature into the patterning and overall psychedelic feel as well as designs from iconic fashion designers.

Art historical references, numerous binaries, and subversions anchor the new work in painting, but McGill’s processes are rooted in sculpture, which dominated most of her studio practice and teaching career. Hence, the casting process with gel medium and textiles as stencils for patterns and images, as well as the use of automotive paints and lacquers comes naturally to the artist. The additions of painted and coordinated imagery on borders, and often more than one, functions as a frame, but also adds dimensionality and depth to the paintings and hence, making them object-like and co-locating them as sculpture.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to debut Heather McGill’s newest series of artworks in the presentation, Invisible Bloom, her second solo exhibition with the Gallery.

The presentation includes 10 new paintings produced over the past 30 months during the pandemic. The new paintings were created with the artist’s novel process as she describes in the statement below. The compositions are abstract while the imagery is from the natural world and specifically from readymade fabrics and lace mass produced for women’s clothing and draperies. Each painting has many layers of imagery and paint that is then sanded to reveal colors and patterns below. Looking closer reveals floral and insect motifs bringing nature into the patterning and overall psychedelic feel as well as designs from iconic fashion designers.

Art historical references, numerous binaries, and subversions anchor the new work in painting, but McGill’s processes are rooted in sculpture, which dominated most of her studio practice and teaching career. Hence, the casting process with gel medium and textiles as stencils for patterns and images, as well as the use of automotive paints and lacquers comes naturally to the artist. The additions of painted and coordinated imagery on borders, and often more than one, functions as a frame, but also adds dimensionality and depth to the paintings and hence, making them object-like and co-locating them as sculpture.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new artworks by Dee Shapiro, Redrawn and Redressed, in her third solo presentation with the gallery. The new artworks are comprised of: original painting and ink renderings, collaging of found printed papers, textiles and sewing trims, appropriation of her own original artworks and human hair as well as appropriated published imagery. In the aggregate, these diverse media and methods create female figures that are mostly nude, bathing, or reclining, as her versions of classic female nudes presented over centuries of art history.

Shapiro’s use of geometric patterns and domestic materials brings a different perspective and interpretation to the nude female body. While they are still sexy and full of intrigue, there is a literalness of the female form—and body parts—that moves beyond a gaze and sexualization to a focus on: line, form, color, and the complexities of the constructions and process. Shapiro’s redux of the classical nudes brings a matter-of-fact presentation of the female body with a focus on unique materials and interpretations that provides an immediacy and contemporary perspective to an all too familiar image and historical male scrutiny of the female form. As the title suggests, “redrawing” and “redressing” not only re-presents the imagery in a new context but also attempts to rectify how the female body has historically been overly sexualized and coveted throughout art history.

The collages of Shapiro play with several concepts: the real shapes of women versus the idealized female form based on the male perspective; the unique and functional aspects of the female body for reproduction versus purely for male pleasure; deconstructing the conventional portrayal of the female figure as only sinuous and supple and redrawing the classic female nudes using the artist’s own drawn and painted patterns, sewing materials—often considered “women’s work”—and human (including pubic) hair. The resulting artworks by Shapiro are less sexualized and objectified portrayals of women’s bodies, as opposed to the historical commissioned portraits—by the Masters in the canon of art history—of women who were most likely the “prize” of the men paying the Masters to capture forever the women’s perceived and cherished fleshy beauty in pigment and oil.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new artworks by Dee Shapiro, Redrawn and Redressed, in her third solo presentation with the gallery. The new artworks are comprised of: original painting and ink renderings, collaging of found printed papers, textiles and sewing trims, appropriation of her own original artworks and human hair as well as appropriated published imagery. In the aggregate, these diverse media and methods create female figures that are mostly nude, bathing, or reclining, as her versions of classic female nudes presented over centuries of art history.

Shapiro’s use of geometric patterns and domestic materials brings a different perspective and interpretation to the nude female body. While they are still sexy and full of intrigue, there is a literalness of the female form—and body parts—that moves beyond a gaze and sexualization to a focus on: line, form, color, and the complexities of the constructions and process. Shapiro’s redux of the classical nudes brings a matter-of-fact presentation of the female body with a focus on unique materials and interpretations that provides an immediacy and contemporary perspective to an all too familiar image and historical male scrutiny of the female form. As the title suggests, “redrawing” and “redressing” not only re-presents the imagery in a new context but also attempts to rectify how the female body has historically been overly sexualized and coveted throughout art history.

The collages of Shapiro play with several concepts: the real shapes of women versus the idealized female form based on the male perspective; the unique and functional aspects of the female body for reproduction versus purely for male pleasure; deconstructing the conventional portrayal of the female figure as only sinuous and supple and redrawing the classic female nudes using the artist’s own drawn and painted patterns, sewing materials—often considered “women’s work”—and human (including pubic) hair. The resulting artworks by Shapiro are less sexualized and objectified portrayals of women’s bodies, as opposed to the historical commissioned portraits—by the Masters in the canon of art history—of women who were most likely the “prize” of the men paying the Masters to capture forever the women’s perceived and cherished fleshy beauty in pigment and oil.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new artworks by Dee Shapiro, Redrawn and Redressed, in her third solo presentation with the gallery. The new artworks are comprised of: original painting and ink renderings, collaging of found printed papers, textiles and sewing trims, appropriation of her own original artworks and human hair as well as appropriated published imagery. In the aggregate, these diverse media and methods create female figures that are mostly nude, bathing, or reclining, as her versions of classic female nudes presented over centuries of art history.

Shapiro’s use of geometric patterns and domestic materials brings a different perspective and interpretation to the nude female body. While they are still sexy and full of intrigue, there is a literalness of the female form—and body parts—that moves beyond a gaze and sexualization to a focus on: line, form, color, and the complexities of the constructions and process. Shapiro’s redux of the classical nudes brings a matter-of-fact presentation of the female body with a focus on unique materials and interpretations that provides an immediacy and contemporary perspective to an all too familiar image and historical male scrutiny of the female form. As the title suggests, “redrawing” and “redressing” not only re-presents the imagery in a new context but also attempts to rectify how the female body has historically been overly sexualized and coveted throughout art history.

The collages of Shapiro play with several concepts: the real shapes of women versus the idealized female form based on the male perspective; the unique and functional aspects of the female body for reproduction versus purely for male pleasure; deconstructing the conventional portrayal of the female figure as only sinuous and supple and redrawing the classic female nudes using the artist’s own drawn and painted patterns, sewing materials—often considered “women’s work”—and human (including pubic) hair. The resulting artworks by Shapiro are less sexualized and objectified portrayals of women’s bodies, as opposed to the historical commissioned portraits—by the Masters in the canon of art history—of women who were most likely the “prize” of the men paying the Masters to capture forever the women’s perceived and cherished fleshy beauty in pigment and oil.

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Violets are Blue, an exhibition by New York-based artist Claire Seidl and her first solo presentation with the gallery. The exhibit is comprised of 15 oil paintings, mostly on linen and a couple on canvas, painted during 2021 and the first part of 2022 with just a few included from 2018 to 2020 that resonate with the new paintings. The compositions created by the artist’s layering of drawn lines with a range of subtle to bold gestural strokes will be readily recognized. However, the surprise in this new body of work is the broader, more vivid color palette that includes pinks, yellows, blues and reds.

The three paintings incorporating pink are the largest in the presentation and would even make De Kooning take pause. The variations in hues are from soft pink infused with yellow, thinly applied as ground colors, with overlays of thin, bold, linear strokes of black in The Big Picture that create an upbeat nod to spring. Another painting with pink, Believe You Me, is moodier with combinations of red and pink, overlayed with thicker, bolder, wider strokes of black and white. The third painting, Take it From Me, uses darker pink with smudges of red, infused with yellow, to generate an orange glow. Black is also extensively used in this work, but in two contrasting ways: dark, fine lines and thin, translucent swaths of black that read as dark gray revealing the warmer colors below.

The yellows are also very dynamic, ranging from large passages of sun-kissed lemon yellow in It Don’t Mean A Thing, to thick, short smudges of less vibrant, ocher yellow on a neutralized grey-green ground, accented with thin vertical strokes of bright yellow in This Must be the Place;  then, all the way to a darker painting derived from the surface-mixing of yellow with black that generates an olive green color with hints of bright yellow peeking through. 

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Violets are Blue, an exhibition by New York-based artist Claire Seidl and her first solo presentation with the gallery. The exhibit is comprised of 15 oil paintings, mostly on linen and a couple on canvas, painted during 2021 and the first part of 2022 with just a few included from 2018 to 2020 that resonate with the new paintings. The compositions created by the artist’s layering of drawn lines with a range of subtle to bold gestural strokes will be readily recognized. However, the surprise in this new body of work is the broader, more vivid color palette that includes pinks, yellows, blues and reds.

The three paintings incorporating pink are the largest in the presentation and would even make De Kooning take pause. The variations in hues are from soft pink infused with yellow, thinly applied as ground colors, with overlays of thin, bold, linear strokes of black in The Big Picture that create an upbeat nod to spring. Another painting with pink, Believe You Me, is moodier with combinations of red and pink, overlayed with thicker, bolder, wider strokes of black and white. The third painting, Take it From Me, uses darker pink with smudges of red, infused with yellow, to generate an orange glow. Black is also extensively used in this work, but in two contrasting ways: dark, fine lines and thin, translucent swaths of black that read as dark gray revealing the warmer colors below.

The yellows are also very dynamic, ranging from large passages of sun-kissed lemon yellow in It Don’t Mean A Thing, to thick, short smudges of less vibrant, ocher yellow on a neutralized grey-green ground, accented with thin vertical strokes of bright yellow in This Must be the Place;  then, all the way to a darker painting derived from the surface-mixing of yellow with black that generates an olive green color with hints of bright yellow peeking through. 

THORNTON WILLIS

A Painting Survey, Five Decades: 1967 - 2017

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present new geometric, color-based, abstract paintings by Heather Jones in her first solo exhibition with the Gallery. The presentation is comprised of 15 new works, all dynamic with hard-edge geometric shapes and patterns that wrap around the sides with high key and contrasting colors that yield a range of optical to trippy compositions and all made of sewn textiles stretched on stretcher bars. While they read as paintings, the artworks are rich with content, rooted in feminist concerns and as the artist stated, honoring “female narratives that are often neglected from history.” They also celebrate and were inspired by sewing and quilt making as well as Jones’s Appalachian heritage. The title of the presentation, To Hold Tender This Land, a line from African American author, activist and feminist from Kentucky, Bell Hooks’ Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place, exemplifies Jones’s commitment to honoring strong and influential women and places that inspire her and her artwork.

This debut exhibition of new work at the Gallery coincides with Jones’s solo exhibition of related and larger paintings at the Contemporary Dayton in Dayton, Ohio that opened earlier in February. Her presentation, Storytellers, is one of three concurrent solo exhibitions of artworks on view by Jones, Odili Donald Odita, and Jeffrey Gibson.