The Amory Show — New York, NY
Eric Firestone Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the 2024 edition of The Armory Show. A cross-generational group of artists and estates will be on view, highlighting aesthetic connections across decades. With this installation, the gallery is pleased to introduce two artists: Walter C Jackson (b. 1940), a sculptor who was recently exhibited in the Just Above Midtown exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art; and Cybele Rowe (b. 1963), an Australian ceramicist based in Yucca Valley, CA, who makes monumental sculptures.
An excerpt from the Press Release:
An expressionist approach, sensations of the natural world, and lyrical brushwork can be found in the work of several artists on view, including Javier Arce, Elise Asher, Susan Fortgang, Colleen Herman, Hue Thi Hoffmaster, and Pat Passlof. The oil paintings of Javier Arce (b. 1973) oil paintings depict vivid natural scenes of trees and blooming wildflowers, inspired by the eco-fiction of Richard Powers and the philosophy of Michael Marder. His canvases are stretched on irregular repurposed untreated wood sourced from the artist’s countryside environment in Cantabria, Spain. Huê Thi Hoffmaster (b. 1982) creates calligraphic thickets of paint across his unprimed canvases. He depicts flower forms, although they are also stand-ins for figuration. His work oscillates between abstraction and representation, Eastern and Western painting traditions. Elise Asher (1912–2004) was a painter and poet whose integration of poetry into her works represents a significant contribution to New York School painting. Asher’s work of the early 1950s utilizes expressive, energetic linear brushwork and is composed in tight color families to create paintings that evoke or reference trees and plants. By 1961, Asher introduced text into these masses—blurring the line between brushwork and writing.
Susan Fortgang (b. 1944) is an abstract painter who approaches each canvas as an experiment, working out a specific problem or trying something new. She creates paintings with a physical presence, often using thick layers of paint to create textured surfaces or iridescent medium so that her works create different optical effects depending on lighting or as the viewer moves in space. Pat Passlof (1928–2011) was an abstract painter of the New York School who used repeated patterns and marks across the canvas to create dynamic rhythms, often suggesting abstracted landscapes. She drew upon experiences and memories, as noted by titles referring to people and places. She lived and worked in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and also spent time in the Shawangunk Mountain area of upstate New York, where the space and air of the mountain ridge influenced her painting. Colleen Herman (b. Baltimore, MD, 1982) is an artist whose richly colored, blooming abstractions reflect seasonal changes and natural growth. Pouring, scribbling, and dabbing paint with her fingers, Herman embraces a process that is highly intuitive and playful. Herman has spent time in Oaxaca and Mexico City, and now lives and works between New York City and the Hudson Valley. The artist takes inspiration from the landscapes of all four places, alternatively tranquil, vibrant, and frenetic.
