NOCTURNE / NOCTURNAL

Press Release

NOCTURNE / NOCTURNAL

Louise Fishman. Mary Frank. Helen Frankenthaler.
Noah Jemisin. Lucio Pozzi. Jack Rabinowitz.
Kiki Smith. Vincent Smith.

Guest Curator: Judy Collischan, Ph.D

October 19th – November 30th, 2002

Press Release

In music and language, “nocturne” intimates a romantic and pastoral aura of lyrical lightness, while the word “nocturnal”, has a psychological edge, connoting mystery and a shadowy darkness. Put together, they suggest a euphoric state tempered by an obscure underetow.

Abstract and figurative, the work in this exhibition by eight artists, offers suspension within a realm of fantasy that is pleasurable yet uneasy.

Wonderfully ambiguous tones of gray predominate in Helen Frankenthaler’s Untitled monoprint that is characteristically luminous an sonorous. In a different, more fictional vein are large and small paintings by Louise Fishman whose trademark is the breathtaking force of brushstrokes producing textural trajectories.

Gray dominates one painting by Jack Rabinowitz, while another smolders with red. Under the crimson, is a black ground that heightens the vivid hue color and limits depth. Like a wall, the red stretches out to the painting’s perimeter in small planes of pigment providing a modulated surface movement.

Blue-gray sets the tone for Noah Jemisin’s “Bay of Veils” based on a compounded experience on the Tyrrhenian Sea. His other entry, “The Sphinx”, projects a mood of subtle Êinscrutability. Blue, black, green and white dominate Lucio Pozzi’s trio of paintings titled to recall the treacherous beauty of women pirates. Layers of oil paint suggest the watery depths and secrets of the briny deep.

Metaphorical and mysterious describe Mary Frank’s work with a triptych format allowing viewers to open and close side panels, thereby becoming part of the process. In “Ballad “, she presents her private metaphorical vocabulary of evocative natural and human forms. The “Super”, by Vincent Smith depicts a scene of the inner city. Within a largely black and red environment of paint, two faces appear at a window-like opening. There is a sense of a clandestine meeting, of whispering and sly goings-on.

Painting dominates this show in a variegated, powerful display of individual aesthetic positions. However, the theme is also realized in three-dimensions by Kiki Smith whose seemingly innocent figurative motif plumbs and resonate within our psyche.

Taken together, the show is poetical in a way that enters the soul through the eyes.

This exhibition was conceived by independent guest curator, Judy Collischan. As Associate Director of the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York, she curated over 50 exhibitions in five years and developed their Biennial for Public Art. At Hillwood Art Museum, C.W Post Campus of Long Island University, she developed a public art program that grew to 75 works over a period of 8 years and organized over 125 shows. She is the author 3 books plus numerous articles, reviews and catalogue essays.