Contemporary Art: Shields & Monuments @ Kasmin New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art is full of surprises. During my recent visits of Chelsea´s art gallery district I spotted an amazing show @ Kasmin (kasmingallery). The art dealer displayed paintings by the Los Angeles based artist Theodora Allen. The exhibition was called "Weald" and included "two bodies of work: Shields (dwale) and Monuments (weald). Dwale from Old Norse, meaning deep sleep or trance; weald from the Old English for forest. The two words are anagrams, both archaic; one is landscape and the other mindscape" (exhibition).

The press release also explains that "translucent coats of oil paint are applied and removed, until the fabric itself shows the weather of its making. Pools of spilled watercolor are also visible among thin layers of oil paint. Allen plays with the tension between the organic lines of the watery edge against the linear and tight weave of linen. Evanescent subjects, polluted spectrums, and radiant blues animate the forces of surface and depth, darkness and light".

Above you can see some Shield paintings - "a suite of intimately scaled still lifes, each variation set within the iconic shape of medieval armor. Executed in a muted palette of jewel-toned hues, the plants are both isolated and adorned, akin to scientific botanical illustrations used in early herbals and pharmacopeia. The storied herbage belong to a world of remedies, aphrodisiacs, sacraments, and poisons. They are killers or curers, sinners or saints. As emblems they are elusive, and carry the weight of existential inquiry."

Above follows the Monument series. “Realized in a near-monochrome palette, this body of work takes on the symbols of a cup, a coin, a sword, and a branch—icons gleaned from allegorical card games of the middle ages through the 19th century. These subjects are bright white and cold, stone-like, set in a dense and overgrown forest of psychotropic plants. The luminous statuaries rest at the entrance of an arched passageway, seemingly between past and future.”


To be continued