HEATHER HUTCHISON :
In Praise Of Shadows
Heather Hutchison: In Praise Of Shadows August 10- September 2, 2019
11 Jane St. Art Center- Saugerties, NY- Gallery South
Guest curated by Jen Dragon of Cross Contemporary Art & Accompanied by an essay by Eleanor Heartney
Opening reception AUGUST 10, 5-8 pm
Open Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 and by appointment. 11 Jane Street- Saugerties, NY 12477
“In Praise of Shadows” is an exhibition of new luminous large scale works by Heather Hutchison debuting in upstate’s new exhibition & performance space: 11 Jane Street Art Center.
CROSS CONTEMPORARY ART at 11 JANE STREET
Gallery Hours: Sat & Sun 12-5pm
Heather Hutchison “In Praise of Shadows”
by Eleanor Heartney
For over thirty years, light has been Heather Hutchinson’s subject and medium. Her works, which exist somewhere between painting and sculpture, use earth bound materials to conjure an intangible luminosity. Over the years she has employed a host of unconventional substances including wax, colored duct tape, plexiglass, paint, concrete and powdered graphite. These are layered, juxtaposed and manipulated within wooden boxes to create translucent bands of horizontal color that shift with changes in the ambient light or the viewer’s position. The current works mark a departure, as she experiments with mirrors and an acrylic polymer medium to create the illusion of a light that emanates from somewhere inside the box.
Hutchison works within the lineage of artists like Donald Judd, Christopher Wilmarth and James Turrell. She shares with them a stripped down artistic vocabulary and a reliance on industrial materials. But while her works are minimalistic and apparently abstract, they are also rife with associations. These constructed paintings speak of sky, water, earth and air. Titles sometimes contain eco references. Included in this show, for instance are Rising Tide, Inversion and Camp Fire. These are reminders that some of the most ravishing visual effects we experience in the natural world today are rooted in our degradation of our environment. The beauty of fiery red sunsets glowing through toxic air, the hyper-real blues and greens of polluted lakes and the misty haze of ozone laden atmosphere evoked by these works comes at a price. Hutchison enfolds us in an intoxicating beauty but pierces the dream with unsettling allusions to our increasingly imperiled reality.
