Sarah Plimpton 'Over the Edge' Opens at June Kelly Gallery

Tuesday, 22 August 2006 13:07

New York City - An exhibition of recent paintings by Sarah Plimpton – powerful canvases with robust, random, abstract shapes that challenge notions of stability, symmetry and spatial boundaries will open at the June Kelly Gallery, 591 Broadway, on September 7.  The work will continue on view through October 7.

The exhibition, entitled Over the Edge, also includes a number of Plimpton’s art books, small limited editions that contain a poem that she has written and illustrated.  Plimpton’s paintings, says art writer Phyllis Braff, are “uneasy interactions between compressed abstract forms in mottled fields of pale air [that] seem to capture the non-gravitational, non-anchored character of the contemporary world and suggest that vertigo is the new reality.”

“These bold, intense canvases,” Braff writes in the exhibition catalogue, “feature strong, weighty shapes that tilt, thrust and dip, introducing questions of balance and equilibrium.  They defy and challenge rational readings, emphasizing destabilization and resisting orientation.  To some extent they imply new dimensions for the role of space.”

Braff says Plimpton also adds to the uncertainty with “continuous shifts with tonal variegations that mottle the surface.  … Pinks or dark grays might momentarily push through a pale gray field, or the eye might try to adjust to unexpected vibrating spots of white. Hints of restraints, or counter pressures, serve as creative elements to be shaped for maximum optical impact."

Braff notes that Plimpton has been exploring the “rich possibilities of the artist’s book” for 30 years and has produced approximately 20 limited editions that combine prints – primarily aquatints or woodblocks – and her poetry.  Her books, says Braff, “reveal sensibilities fueled by a broad education in the arts and sciences."  Plimpton is a native of New York City. She received a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard Medical School before moving to Paris, where she lived for 19 years.  She also studied at Pratt Institute in Manhattan.