Curator's Statement
In a Carole Curtis painting, you are there—very small—on the sidewalk, lost in the city’s shapes and shadows. Evening light, morning light or moonlight have been snagged for you in beams and twirling trapezoids by these obelisks, towers, and corners. Facades ladder up to the heavens, giving you a direct route. These buildings are magnificent beings that speak to each other in a language of reflected light. Curtis’s forms might remind you of Charles Sheeler’s paintings or the sense of urban space in Hugh Ferriss’s architectural renderings, but she walks her own pure lines of abstraction.
Gregg Welz’s cut and folded paper works are rich in nuance. Repeated patterns lift off the background creating shadows that echo the elements of architecture in nature. His forms could be meadows, rivers of white, forest shadows, or flocks of birds. The shapes and shadows of geometric forms become luxurious texture, and viewers experience his paper surfaces the way they would experience the ocean or the air or a tree full of leaves. These compositions are as calming as water and as intricate as a fugue by Bach.
Backgrounds in graphic design inform the work of both of these artists. There is clarity here in these careful compositions, but viewers will also be introduced to new worlds; in each one, geometry has its own poetics.
About the Artists
Carole Curtis
I was born and raised in New York City and my art reflects my life experiences as a native New Yorker, capturing the architecture of this dynamic, bold world. I create large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas suggesting an industrialized, commercial, mercantile metropolis. In blurring the distinctions between what is real and what is imagined, my paintings suggest the city’s structures and define and exploit the reflections and shadows that provide layers and definition to the work. My years of designing as a graphic artist influence my art and inform my work. I see a raw energy and beauty that emanates from the interplay of light reflected on constructed shapes. These architectural patterns, lines and shadows — communicated through abstract design — project and convey my vision of the contemporary urban world.
Gregg Welz
A lifelong resident of Norwalk, Welz explores the grid by intricately configuring pieces of paper into repetitive patterns that create nuances of color and cast shadow. After an art and design education at Pratt Institute, he worked in many creative fields including technical illustration, graphic design, advertising, art restoration and framing design. His current works are called “Paper Cuts.” As a conceptual artist, his imagination is influenced by the geometry of the environment, both natural and man-made. “I’ve always enjoyed paper,” says Welz, when asked how he got started with this work. Influences? “Sol LeWitt—he’s my idol.”
Events
Opening Reception
Thursday, October 8, 2015 from 6:00-8:00 PM