New York City - Beginning with simple, reductive forms, the artwork featured in this group exhibition— made by Diana Cooper, Tara Donovan, Charles Goldman, Jason Rogenes, Jane South, and Phoebe Washburn—draws attention to the minutiae of our material environment.  Occupying both the Gallery and Sculpture Court of the Whitney’s branch at Altria, the exhibition is organized by Apsara DiQuinzio, formerly a senior curatorial assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art, now curatorial associate, painting and sculpture, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  On exhibition December 7, 2006–March 11, 2007.

Through the artists’ meticulous manipulation of widely divergent media the works in the exhibition become complex networks of abundant, connecting forms that delight in color, line, texture, space, mass, and volume.  Visually rich and densely layered, these works are difficult to categorize by medium, as they reside in the interstices of painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation.  While the works included in the exhibition remain concrete, abstract constructions, as a group they are redolent with a distinct sense of burgeoning organicism and resist containment.

Informed by the abundance of a consumer-driven economy, the artists in this exhibition remain committed to craft, labor-intensive methods, and the materials of everyday life.  Whether made from cut paper, felt, discarded paint, straight pins, scrapwood, left-over Styrofoam, fluorescent lights, or cardboard, ultimately the work in this exhibition directs the viewer to the sprawling, interconnected nature of modern life.

Diana Cooper uses common materials such as foam core, corrugated plastic sheeting, felt, Velcro, and pins, to make expansive geometric installations.  In Emerger, which will be on view in the gallery, she juxtaposes organic forms inspired by the human brain with shapes that derive from digital networks.  Interested in our complex relationship with technology, her work points to the limitless potential of growth that is both material and immaterial.

Tara Donovan’s process often mimics organic growth patterns, yet her materials are drawn from the man-made environment.  Typically beginning with one primary material, she builds her sculptures and installations—employing labor-intensive processes and an exacerbated sense of repetition—into dense, awe-inspiring structures.  On display in the gallery will be a forty-inch cube made out of straight pins.

Charles Goldman’s geometric sculptures and paintings represent standardized measurements that are used to quantify things around us and our own relational experience in space.  His curvilinear, paintings index a distance beyond the plane on which they lie, whereas his assemblage sculptures represent scale and measurements extracted from lived experience.

Jason Rogenes collects discarded Styrofoam found in electronic packaging and builds towering sculptural conglomerations reminiscent of space ships through a combination of electrical elements and fluorescent lights.  Through his inventive reprocessing, banal materials are transformed into fantastical structures.  Locus, a newly commissioned thirty-eight–foot polystyrene tower, will be shown in the Sculpture Court.

Jane South’s intricate, process-based work explores the terrain between sculpture and drawing.  What begin as drawings on paper turn into interconnected, geometric tableaux. Bridges, pipes, ducts, ships, cranes, and other types of conduits within the industrial landscape inspire the formal elements in her work. A new work will be exhibited in the gallery.

Phoebe Washburn uses ordinary materials, such as wood and cardboard, and transforms them into monolithic, expansive sculptures.  She often modifies existing installations, reusing materials from past installations, establishing an ongoing continuum within her work.  In the Sculpture Court, she will build a new, freestanding sculpture made primarily from scrapwood, with a bubbling spring inside that will be visible through Plexiglas windows.

Burgeoning Geometries: Constructed Abstractions is accompanied by a free brochure with an essay by Apsara DiQuinzio. The Whitney Museum at Altria is funded by Altria Group, Inc.

The Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria is located at 120 Park Avenue at 42nd Street. Gallery hours: Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sculpture Court Hours: Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Sundays and holidays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Whitney Museum at Altria is funded by Altria Group, Inc.

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