Daniel Levine, Buttercup, 2003-2004

May 15, 2010 – June 26, 2010

Gallery Sonja Roesch is pleased to announce an exhibition of monochrome paintings by Daniel Levine. Since 1990, Levine has created groups of closed-system paintings that embrace the following elements: off-square painting supports of modest scale and varying depths, small borders to amplify the paintings’ complex surfaces, a variety of media (oil, gouache, flashe), and a palette of primary colors. The works in this show, while continuing Levine’s long-standing interest in surface, light, and painterly materials, expand upon this working process in the exploration of open-system paintings.

Using subtle gradations, Levine slowly builds up layers of white and yellow paint, creating complex painterly surfaces. These works reveal themselves over time and from various vantage points, offering the subtle beauty of paint imbedded in an archeology of brushstrokes. Light – especially natural light – is a completing factor in seeing and understanding the paintings. Also, since these works are created over a number of years and the process is documented on the verso of each piece, they are a kind of discrete, personal history of a painting.

Daniel Levine has exhibited in Europe and the United States since 1984 and was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant. His work is represented in the Panza Collection, Italy, The Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and private collections in Europe and the United States. He lives and works in New York City.

Mark Dagley, Final Sequence, 2007
Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10 inches

April 22 – May 8, 2010
Floor Talk: Wednesday, April 21, 12noon

The Engine Room
Massey University
East End Block 1
Wallace Street
Wellington, New Zealand
T: 801 5799 x62170
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-4pm
web site

MINUS SPACE is delighted to announce the group exhibition Escape from New York at The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, from April 22 – May 8, 2010.

Curated by Matthew Deleget, the exhibition surveys reductive strategies by 29 artists living in and around New York City. Each artist will present a single small work, as well as an open letter to the local community of artists.

Escape from New York originated at Sydney Non Objective, Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and later traveled to Curtin University in Perth in 2008 and Project Space Spare Room, RMIT University in Melbourne in 2009.

Participating Artists:
Soledad Arias, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Bibi Calderaro, Mark Dagley, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Julio Grinblatt, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Steve Karlik, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Manfred Mohr, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Robert Swain, Li-Trincere, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn

Also on view at The Engine Room: Collective Monochrome: Billy Gruner & Sarah Keighery.

SUPPORT
MINUS SPACE extends a BIG THANKS to artists Simon Morris (NZ) and Billy Gruner (AUS) for traveling the exhibition to Wellington. Additional thanks goes to the staff of The Engine Room and Massey University for their support of the exhibition.

MINUS SPACE’s programming is made possible by the generous support of The Golden Rule Foundation, as well as individual donors. We thank you!

Berndt Friberg and Palshus
Eleven mid-century unique stoneware vessel forms
Dimensions variable

January 7 – February 6, 2010

McKenzie Fine Art is pleased to commence the new year with a group show, Mostly Monochrome. The exhibition will examine different ways artists use monochrome in paintings and sculpture. The artists in the exhibition include Matthew Deleget, Berndt Friberg, Karen Gunderson, James Lecce, Daniel Levine, David Mann, Palshus, Ursula Morley Price, Bill Thompson, Li Trincere, Peter Weber, and Carrie Yamaoka.

The show will investigate the possibilities that result when artists work in the seemingly reductive manner of limiting their palette to a single color or a tight tonal range. This reductivism focuses attention on formal aspects such as shape, edge, proportion, and a spectrum of surface textures. Several works in the exhibition blur the distinction between painting and sculpture, such as Peter Weber’s work in woven red felt, where the simplicity of the single color emphasizes the undulate folds of the structure and material texture, and in Bill Thompson’s shadow-induced alternating tones on buoyant and playful zig-zaging dimensional forms. In Li Trincere’s trapezoidal and cruciate paintings, the simple forms are enhanced by the rich and glossy surfaces achieved by the application of multiple coats of acrylic or sparkly enamel paint; meanwhile Matthew Deleget’s humorously nihilistic single-color paintings are nearly destroyed by hammering out the centers, leaving an irregular maw of colored shards and the wall surface behind the remains.

A grouping of unique mid-century Scandinavian ceramic vessels in tonal ranges of blue by Berndt Friberg for the Swedish company Gustavsberg and pieces from the Danish company Palshus draw attention to the elegant simplicity of their forms and the subtle variations in their glazes. Ursula Morley Price uses a monochromatic brown matte glaze on her roughly textured ceramic sculptures, enhancing the play of light and shadow on the paper-thin flanges enrobing her vessels. Daniel Levine’s meditative works in white are perhaps the most reductive in the exhibition. Carefully, over several years, textured and precise fields of a single color are applied, yielding surfaces that change in response to varying lighting and movement of the viewer. David Mann creates a lava-like abstract landscape of deep red tones in his painting, with surfaces further modulated by layered dispersions and elliptical shapes. Karen Gunderson’s intense black painting of ocean waves is built from directional brushstrokes of varying width, and uses the light passing across the surface to reveal her forms. Carrie Yamaoka’s interest in material process is explored in sensuously glossy and reflective paintings made from resin embedded with Mylar and pigments which glimmer in changing light and at times feel weightless. James Lecce is similarly interested in sumptuous surface textures, but also the rhythmic play of tight tonalities in his layered, poured paintings of acrylic polymer emulsion enhanced with metallic swaths of color.

Daniel Levine, Untitled #2, 2001
Oil on cotton, 16 x 15 3/4 inches

June 16 – August 28, 2009

“Blue, here is a shell for you…Inside you’ll hear a sigh.” –Joni Mitchell, 1971

James Graham & Sons presents Blue, a group painting exhibition curated by John Zinsser. The exhibition will include the work of: Richmond Burton, Rudolf de Crignis, Joe Fyfe, Wayne Gonzales, James Hyde, Daniel Levine, Nancy Lorenz, Olivier Mosset, James Nares, R.H. Quaytman, Kate Shepherd, Amy Sillman, Kimber Smith, Philip Taaffe, and Dan Walsh.

As much as the color blue is purely color, chroma, it has also been considered as an emotional state. This exhibition uses a single color, blue, as a common theme to examine the practices of a contemporary generation of formalist painters. While the methodologies embraced are pluralistic, ranging from photographic image-based to straight monochrome, a larger trajectory is shared.

Historical works by Kimber Smith, Olivier Mosset, Philip Taaffe and Rudolf De Crignis frame the show. Smith’s underconsidered late canvases break open the ground between geometric abstraction and color field. Mosset’s approach to the monochrome has long been startlingly literal, radical as it moves painting toward form alone. Taaffe uses appropriation to “rupture” preconceived notions of originality. While De Crignis’s transparent layerings of color create perceptual atmospheric space out of material experience.

Richmond Burton, Joe Fyfe, Daniel Levine, James Nares, Amy Sillman and Dan Walsh all work predominantly abstractly, referencing well-known iconic sources through unorthodox and newly exploratory means.

Wayne Gonzales, James Hyde, Nancy Lorenz, R.H. Quaytman and Kate Shepherd employ recognizable imagery—from figuration, to architecture, to landscape—with objectified distance. These artists weigh limited color and material veracity against more traditional illusionistic readings.

Most of the artists included were growing up in the 1970s, and started out painting at the beginning of the end: the end of Abstract Expressionism, the end of Pop and the end of Minimalism. They share this common lineage, and have used its influence toward directed personal ends. In this show, a viewer will discover shared impulses, philosophies and a larger sense of purpose. The strongest connection to be found, however, may be the affect of mood.

May 8-29, 2009

RMIT University School of Art and Sydney Non Objective present contemporary non-objective practice from MINUS SPACE New York. A survey of reductive strategies by artists living in and around New York City. Presenting a single work from each artist, as well as an open letter to the artist community affiliated with RMIT Non Objective.  The exhibition originated at Sydney Non Objective in 2007, and later travelled to Curtin University in Perth in 2008.

Participating Artists
Soledad Arias, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Bibi Calderaro, Mark Dagley, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Julio Grinblatt, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Steve Karlik, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Manfred Mohr, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Robert Swain, Li-Trincere, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn 

SUPPORT
MINUS SPACE is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts. Funding for this exhibition has been generously provided by the Golden Rule Foundation.

MINUS SPACE extends a heartfelt thanks to artists David Thomas and Billy Gruner for bringing the show to Melbourne!  Additional thanks to Daniel Argyle for his assistance.

Installation view
Photo: Matthew Septimus

Closes Monday, May 4, 2009

The exhibition is curated by artist, Brooklyn Rail publisher, and P.S.1. Curatorial Advisor Phong Bui. The exhibition marks MINUS SPACE’s 5th anniversary.

We greatly thank curator Phong Bui and the remarkable staff at P.S.1, the participating artists and their galleries, and our generous donors, whose financial support made this exhibition possible.

Exhibiting Artists
Soledad Arias, Shinsuke Aso, Sharon Brant, Vicente Butron, Bibi Calderaro, Melanie Crader, Matthew Deleget, Lynne Eastaway, Gabriele Evertz, Zipora Fried, Daniel Göttin, Julio Grinblatt, Billy Gruner, Terry Haggerty, Inverted Topology, Steve Karlik, Sarah Keighery, Andrew Leslie, Daniel Levine, Juan Matos Capote, Salvatore Panatteri, Karen Schifano, Jan van der Ploeg, Don Voisine & Douglas Witmer

PLEASE NOTE: Our exhibition in P.S.1’s Boiler Room space closed on January 26, 2009.

Installation in cafe space

Exhibition in cafe space continues until May 2009.

(Boiler Room exhibition closed on January 26, 2009.)  

MINUS SPACE
Curated by Phong Bui
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
A Museum of Modern Art Affiliate
Long Island City, NY  

The exhibition is curated by artist, Brooklyn Rail publisher, and P.S.1. Curatorial Advisor Phong Bui, and includes the work of 54 artists from 14 countries. The exhibition marks MINUS SPACE’s 5th anniversary.

Participating Artists
Soledad Arias, Shinsuke Aso, Marcus Bering, Hartmut Böhm, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Henry Brown, Vicente Butron, Bibi Calderaro, Melanie Crader, Mark Dagley, Julian Dashper, Christopher Dean, Matthew Deleget, Lynne Eastaway, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Daniel Göttin, Julio Grinblatt, Billy Gruner, Terry Haggerty, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Simon Ingram, Inverted Topology, Kyle Jenkins, Mick Johnson, Steve Karlik, Sarah Keighery, Andrew Leslie, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Lotte Lyon, Gerhard Mantz, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Douglas Melini, Manfred Mohr, Salvatore Panatteri, Dirk Rathke, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Tilman, Li-Trincere, Jan van der Ploeg, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn

Ongoing Performance
Bibi Calderaro: PRESENT
Thursdays, 1-4pm, and Saturdays, 12-3pm, in the P.S.1 Cafe

Installation views

January 17 – February 28, 2009

Gallery Sonja Roesch presents Accrochage, a group exhibition with nine artists explorin different approaches to reductive art. The exhibitions features work by Soledad Arias, Matthew Deleget, Daniel Levine, Rossana Martinez, Ruth Pastine, Mario Reis, David Simpson, Hills Snyder, and Tilman

Through using different materials and procedures, these nine artists demonstrate a variety of approaches towards reductive and concept based art. The pieces are either painted, constructed, or using found materials and even though they are reduced to the essentials, the results vary drastically. 

Ruth Pastine uses tiny brush strokes with oil paint to build up the layers of the painting in an almost meditative, obsessive way to achieve a glowing luminosity. Hills Snyder’s conceptual site-specific placed pieces are constructed with colored plexiglass that simply use the outline or shape to communicate a reference to the viewer. Mario Reis submerges the canvas into the river, which then collects the natural pigments and sediments and the movement from the river. Matthew Deleget’s piece ‘I love you’ is made up of found colored plastic bags, which represent the color names citation in a Beatles song.

Work by Olivier Mosset

January 8 – January 30, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 6-8:30pm

A group exhibition featuring artists Sharon Brant, Matthew Deleget, Daniel Levine, Olivier Mosset, Erik Saxon & Li-Trincere.

Exhibition poster

October 19, 2008 – May 4, 2009

(Daniel Göttin’s ceiling work in the cafe continues through summer 2009)

We are delighted to announce our exhibition at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. P.S.1 is one of the oldest and largest non-profit arts centers in the United States solely devoted to contemporary art.

The exhibition is curated by artist, Brooklyn Rail publisher, and P.S.1. Curatorial Advisor Phong Bui, and includes the work of 54 artists from 14 countries. The exhibition marks MINUS SPACE’s 5th anniversary.

We greatly thank curator Phong Bui and the remarkable staff at P.S.1, the participating artists and their galleries, and our generous donors, whose financial support made this exhibition possible.

Participating Artists
Soledad Arias, Shinsuke Aso, Marcus Bering, Hartmut Böhm, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Henry Brown, Vicente Butron, Bibi Calderaro, Melanie Crader, Mark Dagley, Julian Dashper, Christopher Dean, Matthew Deleget, Lynne Eastaway, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Daniel Göttin, Julio Grinblatt, Billy Gruner, Terry Haggerty, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Simon Ingram, Inverted Topology, Kyle Jenkins, Mick Johnson, Steve Karlik, Sarah Keighery, Andrew Leslie, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Lotte Lyon, Gerhard Mantz, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Douglas Melini, Manfred Mohr, Salvatore Panatteri, Dirk Rathke, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Tilman, Li-Trincere, Jan van der Ploeg, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn

Ongoing Performance
Bibi Calderaro: PRESENT
Thursdays, 1-4pm, and Saturdays, 12-3pm, in the P.S.1 Cafe

Interview
MINUS SPACE: The Art of Reduction, by Phong Bui
P.S.1 Newspaper, Fall/Winter 2008

Press / Blogs
Drunkard’s Walk vs. PMU, Ethan Ham blog, December 18, 2008

MINUS SPACE at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / MoMA, Abstract Contemporary Art Blog, December 18, 2008

Top Ten 2008, by Jerry Saltz, Artnet Magazine, December 15, 2008 (MINUS SPACE is cited in #10)

The Year in Art: The Top Nine Shows (and One Event), by Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, December 7, 2008 (MINUS SPACE is cited in #10)

Michael Brennan at 210 Gallery and P.S.1, by Paul Corio, November 16, 2008

Interview with Simon Ingram / MINUS SPACE exhibition at P.S.1, New York, Vernissage TV, November 10, 2008

MINUS SPACE, by Eva Lake, November 10, 2008

MINUS SPACE at P.S.1, The James Kalm Report, November 2, 2008

Update, Henri Art Magazine, November 1, 2008

Reductive Art at P.S.1, by Jon Meyer, October 25, 2008

Gallery Credits
Hartmut Böhm courtesy of Bartha Contemporary, London, UK
Richard Bottwin courtesy of Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY
Sharon Brant courtesy of Elizabeth Moore Fine Art, New York, NY
Melanie Crader courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Mark Dagley courtesy of Abaton Garage, Jersey City, NJ
Julian Dashper courtesy of Esso Gallery, New York, NY
Matthew Deleget courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Gabriele Evertz courtesy of Ober Gallery, Kent, CT
Daniel Feingold courtesy of Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Kevin Finklea courtesy of Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY; Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Daniel Göttin courtesy of Hebel_121, Basel, Switzerland
Julio Grinblatt courtesy of Ruth Benzacar Galeria de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Galeria Baro-Cruz, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Laura Marsiaj Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Terry Haggerty courtesy of Andreas Grimm Gallery, New York, NY
Lynne Harlow courtesy of Cade Tompkins Editions, Providence, RI
Gilbert Hsiao courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Andrew Huston courtesy of Elizabeth Moore Fine Art, New York, NY
Simon Ingram courtesy of Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Mick Johnson courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Steve Karlik courtesy of Anita Schwartz Galeria de Arte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Andrew Leslie courtesy of Annandale Galleries, Sydney, Australia; John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Sylvan Lionni courtesy of Freight + Volume, New York, NY
Lotte Lyon courtesy of Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Rossana Martinez courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
Manfred Mohr courtesy of Bitforms Gallery, New York, NY
Dirk Rathke courtesy of Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX 
Analia Segal courtesy of DPM Gallery, Miami, FL; Guayaquil, Ecuador
Tilman courtesy of CCNOA center for contemporary non-objective art, Brussels, Belgium
Jan van der Ploeg courtesy of Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Don Voisine courtesy of Abaton Garage, Jersey City, NJ; McKenzie Fine Art, New York, NY
Michael Zahn courtesy of Eleven Rivington, New York, NY

Additional Credits
Poster & Flash Animation: Level Design Studio

Dan Flavin, Untitled (to Jan & Ron Greendberg), 1972-73

November 16, 2007 — February 24, 2008

The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light includes more than seventy works of art from the Panza Collection, which is now dispersed in Varese, Verona, New York, and Los Angeles. In consultation with Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, whose vision has guided the project from the start, Gallery Director Louis Grachos and Senior Curator Douglas Dreishpoon have selected the objects and artists to be featured.

Color and light are the key concepts used to select and organize this exhibition, which explores the use of these elements by artists from the 1960s to the present. Beginning with artworks by pioneers in the use of actual light – fluorescent light in works by Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin, and Bruce Nauman’s use of neon light – the exhibition continues to the present with the visual light embodied in monochromatic paintings and sculptures by such artists as Daniel Levine, David Simpson, Phil Sims, Anne Truitt, and Anne Appleby. The exhibition not only traces this historical development of color and light in contemporary art, it also illuminates the continuing evolution of Panza’s philosophic interest in these elements, as realized in many of the works of art he has collected since 1956. A discrete installation is devoted to each of the sixteen artists, highlighting Panza’s penchant for collecting an artist’s work in-depth and allowing for more concentrated study of each artist included.

A group exhibition surveying reductive strategies by artists living in and around New York City. Each artist will present a single work, as well as an open letter to the artist community affiliated with Sydney Non Objective.

Participating Artists:
Soledad Arias, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Bibi Calderaro, Mark Dagley, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Julio Grinblatt, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Steve Karlik, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Manfred Mohr, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Robert Swain, Li-Trincere, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn

> SNO 30 Catalog

SUPPORT
Escape from New York is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.  Funding has been generously provided by The Golden Rule Foundation.

Letters

Soledad Arias > view letter

Richard Bottwin > view letter

Sharon Brant > view letter

Michael Brennan > view letter

Bibi Calderaro > view letter

Mark Dagley > view letter

Gabriele Evertz > view letter

Daniel Feingold > view letter

Kevin Finklea > view letter

Linda Francis > view letter

Zipora Fried > view letter

Julio Grinblatt > view letter

Lynne Harlow > view letter

Gilbert Hsiao > view letter

Andrew Huston > view letter

Steve Karlik > view letter

Daniel Levine > view letter

Sylvan Lionni > view letter

Rossana Martinez > view letter

Juan Matos Capote > view letter

Manfred Mohr > view letter

Karen Schifano > view letter

Analia Segal > view letter

Edward Shalala > view letter

Robert Swain > view letter

Li-Trincere  > view letter

Don Voisine > view letter

Douglas Witmer > view letter part 1 / letter part 2

Michael Zahn > view letter