Coffee Without Cream

Brennan uses palette knives as his main means of creation. The use of the knife creates a push and a pull between both presence and negation because every knife mark that is made, at the same time also clears what was there before. By skimming away pigment, Brennan allows its presence to remain by the emptiness he has left behind, the luminous gessoed canvas glowing through the greys, showing through the form Brennan has carved. The stark white band also highlights the strength of a blank space. While it is empty, it acts as an in-between for both sections of the canvas, and holds both weight and a presence of its own. Brennan’s surfaces are magical and carry a depth to them, especially this piece where the top section feels like a steady wind. Flickers of light are allowed to flow along its currents, whereas the bottom section feels like a gathering rapid torrent underwater. As the waters move, just like Brennan’s knife over the paint, light is pulled up from the depths, and a sense of emptiness becomes a space that is instead full of energy and possibilities. 

 

Adjacent to Brennan’s piece is a wonderful companion piece, with the work of Gary Stephan. The pieces in this exhibition, hung near the entrance to the gallery space or the edge of a wall use emptiness to expand space. Stephan builds up from the edges and leaves the centers of his pieces to breathe, connect, and expand. The red piece next to Brennan’s piece acts as a portal — held against a stark red foundation, Stephan lets the empty center fill on its own as viewers like myself seek the possibilities within that empty space. Similar to the pieces of Stephan’s in the downstairs space, negation seems to be the key to a larger presence.

 

While the interaction of line and color creates their own energies, I feel some of the strongest aspects of Stephan’s work are what he leaves to the empty center. He lets the space breathe and builds tension. It’s as if I am approaching a bright door, temporarily blinded by white light, where I don’t quite know what’s beyond that threshold. Seeing Stephan’s strong painted edge space, with an electric red wash or a bright green, I am given a preview, in a way, of what the emptiness may become. Stephan’s use of an empty center still promises us the possibility of something just beyond, as long as we can make our way through. 

 

Another aspect of the show that I enjoyed was learning about the guidelines and boundaries some of the artists utilize in their practices. While several of the artists in this exhibition have disciplined, well explored practices, ones they know inside and out, three artists especially used guidelines and boundaries as a means of a kind of negotiation to the work. Such as with the work of Lukas Geronimas Giniotis, the stool sculpture in the basement space titled Hard Copy Side Table found by Matt. Giniotis guides us to a stool which you cannot actually sit on. The seat itself is not flat, it’s not welcoming us to take a seat, it seems prepared to have us slide right off. Within the pedestal structure below the legs, you cannot see inside. By not granting us access to conventions we are used to, Giniotis makes us realize the enjoyment of mystery is not knowing all the inner workings.

 

By placing boundaries between us and what is expected, Giniotis welcomes us to find another way of experiencing the piece as a form and a surface and not simply an object we are used to using. Instead we are given the opportunity to experience the work by looking at its presence and foundations, similar to the wall sculptures of Paul Kopkau, where I enjoyed studying the steady yellow color and the smooth surfaces. The circular works seem to endlessly flow into and build upon each other, and like the stool, we can no longer go by usual expectations, especially with Kopkau’s work, when I found out they are cast from concrete. At first glance they seem lighter, weightless even, and I appreciate that the work negates my assumptions of material. Instead, we get to experience the work from all angles, and get a better understanding of it as a form without assumptions. 

 

The third artist that took to specific guidelines for their work is Essye Klempner. Acting like a human camera, Essye recorded a time and a place (specifically Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2022) where they collected materials, built their ceramic forms from the site specific soil, and fired it on site. This process carries a specificity to it, an importance of origins of sorts. While Klempner pressed the clay into rocks or other natural forms, they created a sense of place without giving us a physical place to explore. Instead we are given remnants, or pieces that help build places, help sustain landscapes. While leaning against the wall or laying on the gallery floor, the ceramic pieces certainly bring their sense of place into the gallery. While many of the artists within the exhibition had us studying the surface, experiencing emptiness, and trying to navigate guidelines- the final artist in the show used anticipation as negation. 

 

Julia Goldman’s works hold a kind of reversal of a ‘figure in space’, the figure isn’t essentially present, the figure was space, and in my eyes, the figures become us. Between the couch piece titled Stavvy and the double car handle piece that headlines the exhibition titled Car, Goldman creates pieces that carry an anticipation of what’s to come, but it just isn’t there yet. While many of the subjects of her paintings are everyday objects- objects we interact with daily, Goldman makes them a bit mystical. The negation in this work is the idea of the unexpected and the air of anticipation. We expect something to happen, we expect someone to sit on that white couch, or the car door handle opening into another space, and Goldman doesn’t give us that. Goldman suspends the expected. 

 

These simple, everyday incidentals become a bit abstract and definitely more open ended. After reading some writings about her works, they were illuminated even more. Their presence was definitely clearer, however, my first interpretation still lingered in my mind. The orange and sienna tones of the car handle piece gave me a feeling of suspension- it’s light and atmospheric, like the missing cream of that coffee floating silently to the top of the mug. The presence of the figure is gentle, and Goldman eases us into the experience that she places on the canvas. Especially with Stavvy, she had painted from screenshots- editing out the guests that were sitting on the couch, and by doing so, she negates the original action and has us awaiting the next - waiting to see what the next guest to sit in that space would be. 

 

This exhibition certainly left me thinking long after I had returned home. After exploring the shop and all the surprises it had to offer, and despite the show having a theme about negation- I didn’t feel as if anything was actually left out. A lot was carried within it. The emptiness or the negation became its own presence. The surfaces opened up into entirely new spaces, and I enjoyed the opportunity to explore the connections between the works, how many of the artists used materials from the store itself, and the different processes that these artists all employed.