robin feld: energized
Exhibition Dates: may 25 – june 19, 2021
Reception: Thursday, may 27, 5pm - 8pm
The Painting Center is pleased to announce Energized, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Robin Feld. The exhibition will present 15 paintings belonging to three related series of oil paintings made between 2019 and 2021. Feld’s work synthesizes the movement, flow, energy and geometry obtained through external and internal observation. Her work references 1950’s abstraction as seen through the lens of contemporary landscape painting and personal vision. More specifically, Feld looks to the crisscrossing and tangles found in nature, the juxtapositions of line, shape, and form and the geometry it generates, as a structural jumping off point for working with balance, motion and fluidity within the framework of a two-dimensional surface. Feld uses observational watercolor sketches, photography and automatic drawing as source material. Through the abandon of the big sweeping gesture or the bucket of poured paint coupled with more intimate calligraphic marks and descriptive line she seeks to evoke the sensation of being human in nature.
Speedy, angular energy ricochets through Whitewashed (2020, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches), one of a series of vertically-oriented paintings. These vertical paintings are somewhat ironically thought of by Feld as her “pinball paintings.” Although they consist of organic line and form, not hard-edged angularity, it is the energy flow she is referring to. By contrast, the sinuous cerulean calligraphic marks found in Tumbling (2020, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches) meander and softly rock us from top to bottom. The blue line is broken by interwoven rose toned and forest green brushwork, causing the energy to pause, twist, weave, slip and slide. Slightly different but related, a series of “flower scribbles,” are a surprise that possess a quiet energy which moves and nestles within a square canvas format. During lockdown, Feld found inspiration in bunches of white freesia. In Flower Scribble #2 (2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches) white calligraphic, blossom-inspired markings hang suspended in midair punctuated by a glowing red line, an exploration of balance and motion and buried line.
Feld works out of her studio in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been shown at The Painting Center in New York, Drawing Rooms in Jersey City, Kent State University, Curate NYC, Art Fair 14C, Paramount Gallery at LIU, and the Monmouth Museum. She was recently featured in Jason McCoy Gallery's online Drawing Challenges XV & XVI. Feld attended the High School of Music and Art (LaGuardia High School) in Manhattan, received her BFA at the City College of New York, and studied at the Art Students League.
For more information, visit: www.robinfeldstudio.com
