Chronicle Staff March 15, 2021Updated: March 20, 2021, 8:09 am
‘Thrill Seekers III’ by Gwen Manfrin, watercolor, collage and encaustic on panel. Photo: Gwen Manfrin
The Chronicle’s guide to notable arts and entertainment happenings in the Bay Area.
Ferdinanda Florence and Gwen Manfrin come to Andrea Schwartz Gallery with ‘Threshold’
Andrea Schwartz Gallery is currently presenting a new two-person exhibition, titled “Threshold,” featuring artists Ferdinanda Florence and Gwen Manfrin.
Florence’s work has frequently focused on unfixed, liminal spaces like ambiguous exterior structures. Her new series of paintings departs from that with an emphasis on interior views, specifically doorways, unclaimed spaces and rooms that communicate a sense of loss. Doesn’t that feel like a fitting meditation for art-goers housebound for much of the past year?
MORE Kate Barbee, “Nesting,” 2021. Oil paint, quilted scraps, oil pastel, embroidery thread, yarn, and cold wax on canvas. 96 x 120 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Kohn Gallery.
This week’s art picks include an artist who gives failed paintings a new life as stitched-up pseudo-Cubist forms; a new design-focused gallery lights up Chinatown; and paintings that use palindromes to create stunning patterns.
Kate Barbee, “Blue Moon,” 2020. Oil paint, cold wax, quilted pieces, embroidery string, and oil pastels on canvas 60 x 50 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Kohn Gallery.
A new exhibition of paintings by Kate Barbee abandons the precious sanctity of the canvas. In rosy paintings, figures swirl and mingle, limbs jut out at impossible angles. Just as her figures are deconstructed in a pseudo-Cubist style, her paintings too are cut apart and then stitched back together. The artist approaches each new work with a bev
Parrasch Heijnen opens an exhibition of new works by Xylor Jane
Installation view.
LOS ANGELES, CA
.-Parrasch Heijnen is presenting Back Rub / Foot Rub, an exhibition of new works by American artist Xylor Jane (b.1963, Long Beach, CA). This is the gallerys second solo exhibition with the artist.
Janes exploration of unique phenomena found in numbers and patterns produces delicately layered tessellations that achieve mesmerizingly intricate precision. The artists paintings on panel reflect a controlled form of chaos utilizing ideas similar to that of pointillismweight is added in the density of marks, culminating in a complexly resolved image. The labyrinthine forms are highly evolved constructions utilizing numerical systems sectioned within each panel. Jane either methodically plans out each panel beforehand or begins with problematic compositions that resolve through her experimental process.