Exhibit: Sharon Brant: May 3 through May 16, 2014
On Saturday, May 3 at 7 p.m., Counterpath opens an exhibit of artist Sharon Brant’s recent work. The opening will also feature a reading by poets Noah Eli Gordon, Karla Kelsey, and George Albon. Brant’s exhibit will be on display through May 17.
“By using a known stereotypical form, the square, Brant creates tension by working against the geometrical grain of the shape. For example, sides of her squares can become thicker, or more often, disproportionately thin, even wispy, and show signs of breaking apart, while the square itself is often placed on a sort of pedestal or horizon line, which is either losing its form, disintegrating or being built up into a thickish mass unequal to the wiry sides. Too, what is happening at the base often finds its counterpart in the rapid flame-like brush work at the top of some of the squares. It is as if the form is unable to contain itself–erupting.
In short, we experience the squares of continuously changing nervous features set in quiet monochromatic fields–often white.
The world is full of things seen and unseen. We much around in the midst of these things and call it living. Artists sense the energy generated from this brushing up against. Brant’s paintings and drawings let us feel this energy.”
– Patrick Mangan
Sharon Brant
“This exhibition is dedicated to my high school art teacher, Mrs. Edith Niblo, who was a legendary art educator in the Denver area. She was the mentor of many future artists. It was Mrs. Niblo that suggested I attend the Kansas City Art Institute. IN 1966 after attending KCAI I moved to the Lower East Side in New York City, got a job and painted. Within a few years Ivan Karp, of Leo Castelli fame, represented my work, followed by inclusion in the 1972 Whitney Museum’s “Painting Annual.” Much later I was a member of A.I.R. Gallery, the first women’s cooperative in the country, where I had four solo exhibitions. In 2012 I received a lifetime recognition grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and a solo exhibition at Minus Space in Brooklyn, NY, where my work is represented.” – Sharon Brant
(Image: “31-2012” 2012, oil on linen, 12×24 inches)