THE DRAWING GALAXY

As Founder of The Drawing Galaxy, I investigate the methodologies of contemporary abstract drawing. Every year I curate an exhibition of abstract drawings from artists whose work is dependent on the vast and complex terrain of the language of Abstraction. I have authored articles on Abstraction and Drawing. These writings discuss the concerns of abstraction and its attendant complexities. I teach Abstraction and Drawing: Interpretation and Form at The Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, New York. In teaching and in making my own drawings, I cultivate the perceptual degree or specificity of abstraction which is obtained from the nature of the individual artist, one mark at a time.

www.drawinggalaxy.com

LINES LET LOOSE

For artists, a line becomes virtually an autograph. Drawn lines can be rough and tumble, notably exact, tinged with perforation, zigzagged into repetitive pattern, floating merrily in open space, densely layered into geometric configurations or meandering lazily in tidy script.

Participating Artists: Joan Ades, Leah Brown-Klein, Diane Christi, Scott Clugstone, Frank D’Astolfo, Shellie Davie, Renee Englander, Rei Fraas, Peter Franceshetti, Wilda Gallagher, Judy Gerrard, Patti Gibbons, Polly Giragosian, Marilyn Hauser, Michael Hopkins, Deborah Keesee, Caroline Kelley, John Kleinhans, Jennifer Leighton, Mary Licause, Lois Linet, Harriet Livathinos, Maeve Maurer, Arzi McKeown, Linda Miller, Gloria Mirsky, Kerry Moskowitz, Nancy O’Hara, Joan Oliver, Carol Pepper Cooper, Frederika Ribes, Natalee Rosenstein, Meredith Rosier, Ann Sanger, Naomi Schechter, Laurie Sheridan, Susan Silverman, Terry Tomlinson, Ted Welch, Peg Wright

WIRED GALLERY
11 Mohonk Road
High Falls, NY 12440
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 2, 5 to 7PM
Exhibition: December 2, 2017 – April 1, 2018
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 11-4
December 18 – April 7: closed for the season. Open by appointment only.
682.564.5613 • thewiredgallery@gmail.com
www.thewiredgallery.com

LINES LET LOOSE curatorial statement

Line informs our lives whether we are standing in one or regarding double lines dividing our highways. For artists, a line becomes virtually an autograph. Drawn lines can be rough and tumble, notably exact, tinged with perforation, zigzagged into repetitive pattern, floating merrily in open space, densely layered into geometric configurations or meandering lazily in tidy script.

Art history is rife with the revelry of line. From Surrealist automatic writing to the scribbles of Cy Twombly, the raw looping of Jackson Pollock, the laborious grids of Agnes Martin to the current restless entanglements of Julie Mehretu. The quirkiness of line enthralls artists the world over.

Consider the raw materials employed by artists in their linear gestures. Vying for attention are rivers of ink, strands of watercolor, fuzzy trails of graphite, thread stitched onto paper, wire plunging through space, pastel surges or superimposition of pencil. All of which can carry a vision of grace, tension, leisure, rage or sensitivity.

My selection of the work on view reflects the focus of diversity in the mesmerizing world of line. These individual “portraits” of dialogue between artist and line are their autographs of observation, discovery and invention.

ROLL ONLINE

For the Summer 2013 issue, Roll Online published my essay entitled “The Drawing Galaxy.” Read the article here. The following is an excerpt:

Lucid Dreams, Nanette Shapiro

I have always loved drawings. Abstract drawings, especially. Consider that abstract drawings are analogous to prospecting for surprises. What could be more irresistible? As one who draws abstract forms, I like the directness and intrigue that beckons the moment hand and tool touch the surface. It is certainly an intrepid traipsing through the vault of formal abstract language.

Aside from exemplifying what is possible, drawing is fun. From the delight of the doodle to the mighty power of line to densities of pigment, the endeavor of drawing is a response to compositional contingencies in fluidity and flexibility. That one can court the interchangeability of form and void with the optical characteristics of material is a challenging negotiation. Take marks for starters. From delicate, velvety wisps to raspy mottled and modulated striations to precise mathematical linearity, marks catalogue an evolving dimensionality in the rendering of space. Whether visually separating one discrete form from another or layering on heaps of pattern, a drawing can be repurposed and reformed to introduce divergent scale shifts. Careful looking animates new stories of saturation and legibility. A single object, minute or large amidst emptiness and fullness is but one eccentric recurring theme of drawing. I am all for exploration. No risk, no fun.

Drawing for me is a sort of kerfuffle and one in which the physicality of excavation begins at the threshold of thinking and drawing blind. Then follows looking, then choosing what shapes to re-arrange in order to create tension or how to lose it. Here it is, a reaching in, to that strange, electric encounter between hand and object. There are no rules or regulations. This is the alchemy of interrelation that has yet to be articulated. Read More…[Article PDF]

Drawing Galaxy Events:

ART TIMES JOURNAL

On April 1st, 2013, my essay entitled “The Drawing Galaxy” was published by Art Times Journal: A Literary Journal and Resource for the Fine and Performing Arts, Mt. Marion, New York. www.arttimesjournal.com

MEREDITH ROSIER PRESENTS THE DRAWING GALAXY

I am curator of the Second Annual exhibition entitled The Drawing Galaxy: Abstract Drawings at Backstage Studio Productions, Kingston, New York. www.bsplounge.com. Exhibition Dates July 1-30, 2013

MEREDITH ROSIER PRESENTS THE DRAWING GALAXY

I was Curator of this exhibition with 64 Abstract Drawings under 1 Roof. July 14 – August 5th, 2012. The Doghouse Gallery, Saugerties, New York. Visit a review from The Woodstock Times on their website. The article is entitled “Rosier’s Abstractions”, July 12, 2012. Page 12.