Friday, October 30, 2015

Sam Moyer

A blaze of Autumnal light made a slow stroll across Sam Moyer's studio wall as the day came to an end. Cut by the brick arches that divide her space and the windows' segmented glass, the light fit on the wall as methodically as the clean marble and deeply saturated pieces of fabric fit together in her compositions. She has been in this space for a year now, and with a street loading dock and plenty of walls for hanging and leaning found pieces of marble, it couldn’t be more perfect for her practice. Nicky Morano, her studio assistant, let me to get a jump start on the day before Sam arrived. Nicky was like the straight man for their comedy duo. I was secretly forced to put down my pencil on more than one occasion in laughter as I listened to Sam bounce jokes off of him.


The cold marble in Moyer’s new pieces hovers just outside the parameters of their trippy configurations, forcing the viewer to give extra attention to the details of the artist's decision making. Maybe I have been watching too many old Twilight Zones this October, but there is something surreal and fourth dimensional about them. The reflective qualities of the metamorphic rock create natural portals as they pick up the light in the room, while the thick, rough, durable canvases suck you into their manmade void. In other works in progress, large panes of glass leaned against her studio wall, holding captive the painted black gestures smashed in-between them. While further down the wall, brightly colored, sparkle flecked cuts of found formica jutted up against one another to make bold gestures that remixed the scenes from a 50’s diner. Moyer and I talked about how, when putting these together, it felt more immediate to her than her other work, like making a painting.

We talked about the dreaminess of California, LA's art scene, and our favorite chili recipes over lunch  — obviously dealing with pre-winter jitters. The humor and luminosity that spilled over in the studio made it a place in which I would love to spend more time. Catch her work in Miami this year with Rachel Uffner at NADA and with Rodolphe Janssen at Basel Miami December 3-6th. To see more go to http://www.racheluffnergallery.com/artists/sam-moyer .

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Emily Noelle Lambert

Lost in a jungle of color, I spent a day scrutinizing the value differences of certain reds and blues in Emily Noelle Lambert's punched up new 2D and 3D works. Synchronized in their creation, her paintings are easily camouflaged by her sculptures and vice versa. We took the first few minutes of the visit to rearrange the space in order to get the best view of each piece. As Lambert tenderly stroked her towering, larger than life structures, checking for rough edges, I was reminded of the intensity of preparing for a show, soon to be released to a gallery where it will breathe new life. Lambert's solo show, Idée Fixe, will open at Denny Gallery this Saturday, October 17th.

Having made the new work not only in her Greenpoint studio, but also outside among the trees, welding with her brother in West Virginia, and at a residency in Vermont, Lambert undoubtedly spent some of her time exploring the lush freedoms of a summer outside of sweaty Brooklyn. This comes across in the prismatic dances that Lambert's unadulterated gestures make across the surfaces of her canvases and sculptures. Loaded with blocks of color in punched up high contrast, her two types of work play off of one another's negative spaces, allowing for a conversation within her practice. Carved out semi-circles in her sculptures frame the space surrounding them and show up repeatedly in her paintings, interlocking her compositions. You can even find some wood pieces of the same shape sitting on the tops of her canvases, breaking up the rectangle's rigidness. Bringing to mind the recent Picasso sculpture show at MoMA, Lambert stretches beyond the boundaries of pure abstraction to reference the curve of a woman's body, broken light coming through the trees, or a perched feathered friend. There is as much to discover in her painted world as there is in a land intoxicated with Summer.
                             

  The playlists were sing-along worthy, and the snack table was full of cheese and chocolate, so you can imagine how hard it was to end the visit and head into the cold hard rain that was starting off the Fall. It was great to spend time with Lambert and her work before it headed to the Lower East Side. I am looking forward to my next viewing of it this weekend. To see more go to http://emilynoellelambert.net/section/28244.html