Adrian Piper at MOMA

Posted by Susan Happersett

It is the final two weeks of Adrian Piper’s MOMA retrospective titled “Adrian Piper A Synthesis Of Intuitions 1965-2016”. This exhibition features work from Piper’s diverse career. The first few rooms include excellent examples of early conceptual work with Mathematical themes.

“Nine -Part Floating Square” from 1967 features nine canvases positioned to for a 3X3 square each canvas is divided into 3X3 grid. A selection of grid squares on each canvas is painted with gesso to form a 6X6 square that stretches across all of the panels in an off center position.

“Infinitely Divisible Floor Construction” first constructed in 1968 consists of squares of particle board and lines of white tape.The first square is undivided, the next arrangement is four sections each divided into 4 squares (2X2 grid), the third arrangement is nine sections each divided into 16 squares (4X4 grid), the largest formation features sixteen boards each divided into 64 squares (8X8 grid). This work becomes an parade of squares with in squares that becomes more intense as it marches across the gallery floor, highlighting the geometric structure of the squares as well as referencing the more abstract concept of mathematical infinity.

Piper continued to use the tenets of conceptual art in her practice but the themes changed. Societal concerns, especially racial discrimination became the subject matter of much of the work. I realize the main emphasis of this blog is to discuss the Mathematical connections to Art, but I hope that anyone who is in NYC goes to MOMA to see this show not only for the Math Art but takes the time to experience the entire timely exhibition.

Susan Happersett

The Whitney Biennial

Posted by Susan Happersett

This year the Whitney Museum of American Art presents its 78th Biennial survey. I knew from media reports that the art selected heavily represented political and social current events. There was a wide cross section of themes including an emphasis on figural work, but there were two artists whose work dealt directly with geometric figures.

Matt Browning, untitled, 2016

Matt Brownings gridded wall sculptures were installed in small groupings through the two floors of exhibit. each grid of 26 cubes is hand carved from a single piece of wood forming an interlocking lattice work.

Brownings’ subject matter of the cubes relates to the perspective of minimalist geometric sculpture. His technique of painstakingly whittling the wood by hand takes the geometry to the unexpected realm of craft and folk art.

Larry Bell, “Pacific Red II”, 2017

Larry Bell’s laminated glass sculptures are installed on a roof terrace. Consisting of 6 large prisms featuring six foot by eight foot walls each enclosing a smaller six foot by four foot prism. The transparent nature of the material allows for a comparison of the proportions of the two sized boxes. All twelve have the same height but the interior forms are half as wide. The volume of the larger boxes are 4 times that of the interior boxes. I particularly like the way the sculptures are situated so that the viewer can see the surrounding buildings through the colored glass. The abstract geometry becomes part of the city scape.

Susan Happersett

The Armory Show

Posted by Susan Happersett

The largest of all of the Art Fairs in New York City last week was the Armory Show that was on two huge piers (92 and 94) on the Hudson river. A wide range of work was exhibited, I have just chosen a sampling of more recent work with Mathematical themes.

Bernar Venet, “11 Acute Unequal Angles”, 2015
Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery

I was still in line to check my coat when I spotted Bernar Venet’s steel sculptures across the aisle. The title of the work above, “11 Acute Unequal Angles”, is a perfect description of the geometric theme of the work. It is always exciting to see work that so directly embraces the mathematics.

Shannon Bool, “Untitled”, 2017
Courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

This next work, by Shannon Bool, is a large- scale oil and batik on silk. The fabric is slightly transparent and backed with a mirror which creates an interesting repetition of the design, as well as a slight ghost of the reflection of the viewer. Through the use of grids and diagonals, there is a reference to the geometry of architecture.

Brandon Lattu, “Columns, White, Natural Progression”, 2016
Courtesy of Koenig & Clinton Gallery

This eight foot tall painted plywood column by Brandon Lattu consists of 12 stacked prisms. Each prism has a regular polygon as its base. The top form has is triangular, the second is square. The third one has a pentagonal base, and so on. Each subsequent prism has bases with one extra side. The prisms are stacked in such a way that a vertex from each prism lines up to create a vertical line.

Brandon Lattu, “Columns, White, Natural Progression”, 2016 (detail)
Courtesy of Koenig & Clinton Gallery

When you walk around the structure you can see the different angles. This work is a great visual example of a numeric progression in terms of the number of sides in each section. It also compares the different angles found in regular polygons.

Jim Iserman, “Untitled” , 2013-2014
Courtesy of The Breeder Gallery

Jim Iserman’s acrylic painting is a pulsating homage to hexagons. This work is made like a tiling. Each hexagon is created using three rhombi. By situating the yellow bands to meet at the center, Iserman creates a Y-pattern. The forms take on the presence of cubes jumping off the surface.

Jim Iserman, “Untitled” , 2013-2014 (detail)
Courtesy of The Breeder Gallery

The Armory show is an overwhelming experience. It takes hours to even get a superficial overview. There were a myriad of other works of art that relate to mathematics at this venue. It was difficult to chose just a few.

Susan Happersett

Francisco Castro-Leñero at the Howard Scott Gallery

Posted by Susan Happersett

Renowned Mexican painter Francisco Castro-Leñero has a long history of abstract geometric themes. His current exhibition at the Howard Scott Gallery features a brilliant selection of painting created between 2004 and today.

Francisco Castro-Leñero – “Mandala (tres tiempos)” – 2016
Picture courtesy of the artist and the gallery

“Mandala (tres tiempos)”, which was painted this year, uses a 12 by 12 square grid format. The length of the side of the squares become the length of each of the radii used to create circular arcs, with the centers of the circles located at the corner of grid squares. The arcs have measurements of 90 degrees, 180 degrees, or 270 degrees. This technique allows Castro-Leñero to create undulating ribbons. The outer rows and columns of the painting have a white background with colored arcs on the left side and black and grey arcs on the left. The 6 by 6 grid at the center of the canvas features a a black background with white and grey arcs. This center square reinforces the contrast between the linear and curvi-linear geometry, as well as positive and negative space. By mapping a vocabulary of squares and circles, and displaying a virtuosity of color Castro-Leñero’s paintings build intricate geometric structures.

Susan Happersett

Jan Schoonhoven at David Zwirner

Posted by Susan Happersett

The David Zwirner Gallery’s 20th Street branch in Chelsea is presenting a large show of the work by one of the most influential Dutch artists of the last half of the twentieth century, Jan Schoonhoven. A member of the Nul Groep in Holland, Schoonhoven was connected to the international art movement “ZERO Group”. The artist members of these groups worked to develop a type of art that was more objective then the more emotionally expressive art created after WWII. Schoonhoven established techniques to create monochromatic wall sculptures that relied on clean geometric lines to explore form,light, and shadows.

Jan Schoonhoven – “R70-28” – 1970

The rectangular grids like the ones seen in “R70-28” from 1970 are probably the types of structures that became most famous. A square relief sculpture with 5 columns with ten rows each. The white walls are the grid lines, creating rectangles with a 1:2 ratio of height to width. The exhibition at David Zwirner is quite inclusive and includes works on paper, earlier geometric work, as well as work featuring more complex geometry.

Schoonhoven used latex paint, paper, cardboard and wood to assemble these sculptures. The hand of the artist has given these 3-D spaces an ageless quality. Although the geometry is all straight edges there is a softness to the lines of these shadow boxes.

Jan Schoonhoven – “R69-33”

The work “R69-33” from 1969 has a rather complex pattern made up of trapezoidal surfaces. They are positioned into rows with horizontal axes of symmetry. The longer side of each trapezoid is closest to the viewer. This work offers a dramatic example of Schoonhoven’s use of shadows.

Jan SChoonhoven – “Diagonalen” – 1967

“Diagonalen” from 1967 is one of my favorite pieces in the show. The grid format is intact but by bisecting each grid square on alternating diagonals the artist has created a lattice of right triangles. One of the most exciting elements of Schoonhoven’s wall sculptures is that they change depending on the angle from which you see the art. As the viewer moves around the gallery the shadows are changing.

All pictures courtesy of the gallery.

Susan Happersett

Warren Isensee at Danese Corey Gallery

Posted by Susan Happersett

The Danese Corey Gallery is currently exhibiting the abstract geometric paintings of Warren Isensee. The artist uses a playful vocabulary of color to achieve an exciting sense of light. The straight edges are all hand painted without the aid of taping and Isensee uses adjacent colors that create enough tension that the work pulses with energy.

“Dark Heart”, 2014

The large square canvas “Dark Heart” provides an interesting perspective on the grid. Floating in a field of steel blue, the yellow black and red figure is made up of solid and striped squares. Alternating from horizontal to vertical of striped squares, the patterning draws the viewer’s eye to the two central horizontal bands. This work features both horizontal an vertical axises of symmetry through its center .

“Surface Noise”

“Surface Noise” offers the viewer an optical trick. At first glance it appears to have a nice neat four-fold rotational symmetry. The artist has painstaking created detailed elements of the composition that possess four-fold rotational symmetrical patterns. Only after close inspection you realize that the small center form is a rectangle and not a square. This painting has horizontal and vertical axises of symmetry, but it is not four-fold rotational symmetry. I think the slight deviation makes “Surface Noise” more interesting. It becomes a commentary on the visual expectations of symmetry.

Pictures courtesy of the gallery and the artist.

More math art next time

Susan

Jacob Hashimoto at Mary Boone Gallery

Posted by Susan Happersett

The artist Jacob Hashimoto has created a breathtaking installation at the Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea NYC. “Sky Farm Fortress” fills the entire main room of the gallery.

This huge 3-D grid environment is comprised of a multitude of kite-like square, circular, and hexagonal elements. These small elements consist of thin paper over bamboo support bars that cross in the center.

The paper panels are suspended from the ceiling with black thread. The arrangements of these panels are based on the structure of the cube. They hang in a series of rows and columns, sometimes with large gaps, where only the thread is visible so the viewer can see the next series of shapes in the background.

The ceiling of the gallery is completely filled with the paper grid, that trembles as the air circulates through the room.

Jacob Hashimoto has created two different dichotomies in his “Sky Farm Fortress” installation. The work incorporates the rigid structure of a 3-D Cartesian system grid, but the individual elements are not static, they move in response to air flow of the gallery. Hashimoto uses small ephemeral paper elements that appear fragile in nature to construct a monumental work of art. I have already visited the gallery twice to experience this exhibition and I plan to go again. It will be on display until October 25th.

All pictures courtesy of the artist and the gallery.

– FibonacciSusan

Bridges Math Art Conference Seoul – Part 3

Posted by Susan Happersett

There was so much interesting work at the Bridges Conference Art Exhibition it is difficult to select just a few but… here are a few more of my favorites.

John Hiigli

John Hiigli is a New York based artist whose work I have admired for years. His Contribution to the exhibition included an outstanding black and white painting titled “Chrome 203 Homage to De Barros I: Translation”:

Hiigli – Chrome 203 Homage to De Barros I: Translation
Picture courtesy of the artist

This painting is a great study of the power of positive and negative space. Hiigli uses 3/4 squares in alternating black and white to build a square pattern that he then uses to create a 3 by 4 grid of these square elements. I really like the concept of using a 3/4 fraction of a square, the general outline of the square remains even though 1/4 has been removed. These patterns are based on the work of Brazilian painter Geraldo De Barros.

Henry Segerman

There were a lot of sculptures at the conference that were made using 3-D printers. One artist whose work stood out was Henry Segerman. His “Developing Fractal Curves” figures had a graceful presence and conveyed the narrative of the Mathematical sequences in an interesting linear fashion.

Segerman – Deloping Fractal Curves
Picture courtesy of the artist

These four structures start at the top with the basic iterations of the fractals clearly defined. As the viewer’s eye travels down into the curves the patterns become more and more complex. These small sculptures do an excellent job of conveying the nature of fractal curves.

Mike Naylor

Mike Naylor has created an interactive Mathematical pattern generator called “Runes” that can be used on a tablet or smart phone. This program allows the participant to explore the operation of multiplication by making curves within a circle that is divided like a numbered dial. The more numbers on the dial the more complex the patterns become. ”Runes” is available here. Naylor has created an excellent tool to show students how a simple mathematical process, used in different permutations, can result in a wide variety of visual images.

Susan Happersett

Dominick Talvacchio at Matteawan Gallery

Posted by Susan Happersett

Matteawan Gallery in Beacon, New York is currently exhibiting works on paper by Dominick Talvacchio, in a show named “The Eros of Mathematics”. Talvacchio has a background and education in mathematics. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. The visual dialog in his print and drawings express his interest in the inherent beauty of the order and structure found in mathematics.

Arcs Missing Arcs – 2012
Giclée Print
Picture courtesy of the artist and the gallery

In the print “Arcs Missing Arcs”, Talvacchio has created a 4 by 4 grid of touching circles with only sections of the circles visible. These arcs create a series of graceful and organic curves. The viewer senses the existence of the underlying grid pattern, but is allowed to enjoy the sensual aesthetics of the segmented curves.

Kairovan Below – 2012
Drawing on paper
Picture courtesy of the artist and the gallery

The drawing “Kairovan Below” features two elements. First, an underlying, lightly-drawn tiling. Second, a selection of line segments from the tiling, drawn in a darker black. The tiling has a four-fold rotational symmetry. Within this symmetrical pattern there are five-point non-symmetrical stars. The juxtaposition of the overall symmetry of the tiling against the not-quite-symmetrical stars creates an interesting tension. By making some of the lines darker and more pronounced, Talvacchio allows a simplified but elegant pattern to emerge.

Artist talk and reception

On June 1st from 2-4 at Matteawan Gallery there will be an artist talk and closing reception for “The Eros of Mathematics”. I will be there to participate in the discussion about the relationships between mathematics and art. All are welcome.

Beacon

Matteawan Gallery is located in Beacon. A small city north of New York City, situated on the Hudson River. It is the home of DIA Beacon, a museum dedicated to displaying long-term, large-scale gallery presentations of single artist displays, with emphasis on conceptual art and minimalist work. They have an excellent selection of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings currently on view. I would suggest DIA Beacon as an excellent destination for a day trip for any math art enthusiast. While you are in town, check out the galleries on Main Street.