Key Projects is pleased to present A Familiar Line, an exhibition featuring Joanne Freeman, Mel Prest and Carol Salmanson. A Familiar Line features artists whose work in painting, drawing and light expresses their relationship with line and movement. Each artist is developing a singular language of straight, circular or jagged lines, which are hand drawn or stenciled. The repeated line is familiar, but its occurrence is an exploration.

Joanne Freeman’s paintings of circular, looping lines - an extension of the artist body - elegantly convey a rhythmic dance using a subtle pallet of red, blue, green and yellow. Mel Prest’s paintings read as a system of straight and overlapping lines that vibrate the plane. Close inspection reveals the artist’s hand; the lines quiver, come in and out, creating a sense of imbalance. Carol Salmanson’s dynamic and playful jagged lines flutter and flicker, capturing light-like movements in her “Calligraphic Transmissions.”

Joanne Freeman is a painter and curator who lives and works in New York City. She received a M.A. in Studio Art from New York University and a B.S. in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin. Freeman’s solo and group exhibitions include University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine; Lohin Geduld Gallery, NYC; Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC; Marc Jancou Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland; The Painting Center, NYC; and the Queens Museum, NYC.

Mel Prest, born in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a painter and curator living and working in San Francisco, CA. She has been awarded funded artist residencies at Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Sam & Adele Golden Foundation, MH deYoung Museum and was an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands. She received a M.F.A. from Mills College and B.F.A. in painting from Rhode Island School of Design. Recent exhibitions include ZeppelinMetroMashup at B Sakata Garo, Sacramento, CA; Soft Luminosity at IS-projects, Leiden, NL; Art on Paper 2012, at the Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC, among others. 

Carol Salmanson is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator, working with light and reflective materials. Recent solo exhibitions include Village Square in the West 10th Street Window, part of Time Equities’ Art-in-Buildings program; Light Lines at Visual Arts Center of New Jersey; Storefront Bushwick; Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery, Brooklyn. Select group exhibitions include Color Formed at FiveMyles, Brooklyn; Space Invaders at Lehman College; Illuminators at OK Harris, NYC. She received a B.S. in Biological Psychology and studied art at the Arts Students League and the School of Visual Arts.