click here to view the exhibition at M. David & Co.

M. David & Co. is proud to announce Cellophane, curated by Nicole Castaldo.

Cellophane delves into the current language of painting, questioning and challenging the notions of viewing and the delineation of the medium. 

A rejection of the digital image, the works in this show evoke a sensory experience based in the tactile and performative implication of the viewer. Texture, scent and motion found in these works demand to be received by a physical body. Their layered surfaces, focus on material and evident process encourage a slowing down that is often missed in the digital age. 

Featuring the work of Len Bellinger, Michael David, Daniel John Gadd, Daniel Giordano, Lonnie Holley, Morgan McAllister, Kelin Perry, Judy Pfaff and Heather Rubinstein Cellophane further questions the blurred boundaries between painting and sculpture. Protruding out from the rectangle, rich moments of light fractured off a surface, frozen resin drips, built up paint crevices and frantic stitches provoke an excavation of space and process.  

Mounted to the wall, Kelin Perry deviates from the rectangle with irregular edges and surfaces formed by pieces of found cardboard. Her mark - the folds, wrinkles, and layered pieces - catch light in various manners causing the eye to move into and out of the plane. Smaller in scale, Morgan McAllister too causes the viewer to go inward.  Her plush surface and valleys created by cracks in paint and carved out center, draw you into the the abyss of various materials that compose her world.

Equally as immersive, Len Bellinger’s chisholm pulls the viewer in multiple directions and dimensions. Bold colors spiraling in each quadrant create a feeling of vertigo and multileveled surface evoke a feeling of instability and imagined tactility. Disjointed space is also prevalent in the work of Heather Rubinstein. Numerous bedding fragments - painted, dyed and sewn together with frantic stitches - compose American Spreads (after Rauschenberg). Draped from the wall the flatness of the work is dissolved - shadows form behind it teasing and hinting a sculptural essence.  

The dimensional limits of painting are pushed further in Michael David’s The Seven Sins of Memory, frozen marks, petrified in space extend from the wall into the viewer’s realm. The monochromatic whiteness creates a surrealistic moment as if the wall itself is melting down and reaching out. Judy Pfaff challenges similar notions in her piece. Day-Glo neon plastics melt, mimicking the plasticity of paint. Dripping downwards and manipulated into organic curves, orifices materialize forming windows through the layers, which are echoed and enhanced by the transparency of the medium.

Daniel John Gadd’s A Place for You weightlessly suspends in space in a insectual manner. Hunched over, his work invites the viewer in, creating a cocoon-like interior for an intimate experience. Despite the dimensionality, the delicate manipulation of the various materials insists that each mark be read individually allowing the work to simultaneously exist in both a flat and three-dimensional plane. Daniel Giordano’s work also conveys a delicacy as well as an insistence to slow down in his use of non traditional and eccentric materials. Enticing the viewer to crouch down to get under and close to the forms, Study for Brother with Pet Eel in Vicki’s Stilettos reveals diverse textures, finishes, and applications. Despite standing at 75 inches, the crannies in the ceramic, raw cuts in the wood and dehydrated texture of eel and burnt plastic wrap incite a microscopic viewing. Lonnie Holley requires the same intentionality from the viewer to reveal whole work. Severed branches wrapped with burlap, metal wire, faux flowers, and various other materials cause an inward exploration of the piece, mining for more information. 

The works in this show, regardless of their formats, push and blend the boundary and vocabulary of painting and sculpture. The blurred boundaries extend beyond the artist, implicating the viewer to be present in the immersive nature of the works.

Cellophane is on view from January 17, 2020 - February 2, 2020.