Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present On Point, a four-person exhibition featuring new works by Sarah Amos, Beth Dary, Kathleen Kucka, and Susan Schwalb. The show will open with a public reception on June 25th, 5-7 pm, and runs through August 15th.
The artists in this exhibition have dedicated their careers to exploring various abstract aesthetics through different techniques and materiality. Their processes are universal and have transcended the ages and, in some instances, bridged the utilitarian spheres into the fine arts realm. Themes that preoccupy their formal artistic investigations include repetition, cultural rituals, complexity, natural systems and the role humans play on all of these, directly or indirectly.
Biomorphic and ritualistic forms become imaginative psychological landscapes for Sarah Amos, sourced from the personal and collective. The Australian artist is a non-conventional master printmaker specializing in Collagraph, a technique inspired by the intaglio tradition which involves constructing textured matrices with hand-inked incised marks to produce a singular impression. In 2014 Amos began experimenting with felt, acrylic and the stitched mark, being drawn to the tactile and rich qualities of the materials. In the context of the works in the show, the collagraph becomes the foundation after which Amos introduces felt, hand-stitched yarn and acrylic to build layer upon layer to create three-dimensional surfaces. For the artist, these dynamic, eye-catching, sculptural works developed unconsciously to become “portals through which to consider our interconnectedness with nature, its beauty, fragility and complex systems.” Amos maintains an active national and international exhibition schedule as well as printmaking and teaching practices. Her works are in many private and museum collections, and she lives and works in Vermont.
Beth Dary investigates the symbiotic relationship we have with the environment and the role we play in shifting its evolution over time. Her works explore water in its manifestations and effects, such as the liminal spaces between land and water where new forms and organisms on the macro and micro scale develop and flourish. Dary grew up in Cape Cod and spent time in New Orleans and other coastal areas, places that informed her awareness of how fragile the waterway ecosystems are when tested or stressed. The exhibition will feature the artist’s kinetic and wall-mounted push-pin sculpture, a new series created with wonderfully colored glass push-pins taking on the appearance of dynamic sea urchins and other organisms. Other works featured are drawings on hand-made paper with encaustic that reference littoral patterns created by shifting tides. Dary has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions, and her work is in private and museum collections. She lives and works in New York.
Kathleen Kucka is exhibiting current paintings from the Cut Out Series, a body of work that marks a new direction in her artistic practice. Characterized by hard-edged geometric compositions, these works are created through a process of cutting and splicing layered canvases to construct intricate patterns and rhythmic visual structures. Each painting is composed of two canvases: an underlying layer painted in acrylic, over which a second canvas is stretched and meticulously cut with a razor blade to reveal geometric forms. Through this process, Kucka creates a dynamic visual language that balances precision with spontaneity. In several works, the fluidity of the underpainting emerges unexpectedly through the cut surfaces, evoking luminous nebulae, cosmic landscapes, and vibrant atmospheric effects. Kucka’s work unapologetically allows material, surface, and color to speak for themselves. For more than three decades, she has explored the expressive possibilities of materiality through painting and mixed media. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is held in significant private and museum collections. Kathleen Kucka lives and works in New York and Connecticut.
A leading specialist and champion of silverpoint, Susan Schwalb has been working prolifically with the medium for over five decades. Silverpoint was a medium favored during the Renaissance in Italy and the Flemish regions, with luminaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt van Rijn among others using it as their drawing material of choice. As red chalk and graphite emerged, silverpoint waned only to be revived later in the 19th Century. Today, silverpoint, as well as other metalpoint materials, such as gold, platinum, copper, bronze, pewter and aluminum are used, but mostly for figurative or representational work. Also of note, the material is an unforgiving medium — once a line is drawn, it cannot be altered or erased. It therefore requires great skill and self-assuredness to create a mark. Schwalb bridges the historic with the contemporary, presenting exemplary geometric abstractions made with perfect, fine lines or grided patterns across beautifully colorful prepared surfaces. The various metals used in her mark making tend to shimmer as the ambient light shifts. Schwalb has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, and her work is in many important private and museum collections. The artist lives and works in New York City.
