Check out "Under The Knife" at the Armory in March

The Armory Center for the Arts will present Under the Knife, a group exhibition exploring the technique of cutting in the development of works of contemporary art. The exhibition will be on view March 22 through May 10, 2009 and is curated by Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne, Assistant Curator at the Armory. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, March 21, 7 to 9 p.m.

Participating artists include China Adams, Paul Butler, Francesca Gabbiani, Ellen Gallagher, Sherin Guirguis, Charlotte McGowan-Griffin, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Natrop, Claire Oswalt, Jared Pankin, Lana Shuttleworth, and Fran Siegel.

Several of the artists are creating new site-specific installations for the exhibition. Using saws, lasers, Xacto knives and scissors, the twelve exhibiting artists in Under the Knife employ a variety of media to sculpt, paint, and draw with cut lines and forms. What emerges are graphically complex works that examine process, materiality, layering, elimination, and the relationship between positive and negative space.

Through their investigations into process and materials, the artists in this exhibition draw contemporary conclusions from early modernist practices and traditional craft and folk-art techniques. In allowing these contradictory movements to coalesce harmoniously, the artists create bold new work that rejects preconceived notations of fine art and allows for the ambiguity and freedom of what can be achieved when the paintbrush, pencil and chisel are replaced with the knife.

Each artist possesses his/her own mastery of this seemingly violent tool to create commanding yet often delicate artistic gestures. For instance, Chris Natrop uses light and sound in his multi-sensory cut paper and Plexiglas installation to further draw the viewer into his fanciful environment. Charlotte McGowan-Griffin also incorporates enhanced light in her incredibly detailed, cut-out silhouettes attached to the end of LED-illuminated tubes which alternate colored light with a subtle rhythm.

Dealing with the human subject, Wangechi Mutu employs the medium of collage, to contort and distort female imagery to make the figure seem surreal or inexplicable. Artist Claire Oswalt creates cutout human puppets from wood, twine, and graphite on paper that coalesce softly rendered drawings with hard cutout shapes, creating a didactic union between real and make believe.

Sculpting with cut paper to create layering and texture, Francesca Gabbiani mimics architecture in both process and subject by slicing into sheets of construction paper and assembling layer upon layer of flat colored shapes to create depth and form with each building block. Ellen Gallagher demonstrates her own sculptural technique by delicately puncturing and carving thick watercolor paper in the manner of Scrimshaw, a 17th century art form that was originally made from the byproducts of harvesting marine mammals .

Fran Siegel questions the physical boundaries between art and the space around it by creating monumental topographical cut paper drawings that are layered, assembled, sewn together, and then pinned directly to the gallery wall. With a conceptual slant, artist Paul Butler creates collage using discarded fashion magazines at his signature Collage Parties, essentially happenings that honor art making in a spontaneous and informal way. China Adams concept driven art deals with humor and the imperfect creative process by making use of a failed novel (4 years in the making) by dissecting each line of text to create carefully cut and reconstructed hanging sculptures.

Through the use of power tools and blades, Lana Shuttleworth’s painterly mosaics are carefully assembled using thousands of shards of reclaimed street cones and resemble whimsical landscapes and representational objects. Also building with fragmented industrial materials, Jared Pankin’s topographical explosions are constructed from seemingly random bits of wood including 2 by 4s, plywood, and moldings that have been cut, nailed, and glued to suit the artist’s needs.

Finally, existing on the edge between reductive and ornamental, contemporary and traditional, and flat and 3-dimensional; Sherin Guirguis creates both wall bound cut paper drawings and freestanding sculptures that reflect her Egyptian heritage and have uncanny resemblances to fences and barriers which are used to assist, protect, enhance or control one’s movement through space.

This exhibition will be on view in the Caldwell Gallery at the Armory is at 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, and will be open Tuesday – Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is free. The Armory is easily accessible from the Gold Line Memorial Park Station in Pasadena. For information about Armory exhibitions and events, the public may call 626.792.5101 x122. or visit the Armory website at www.armoryarts.org.