Lightly Structured
December 2, 2016 - January 21, 2017
Opening reception: Friday, December 2, 6–9 PM
Hours: Saturday 12–6 PM & by appointment
Sculpture Space NYC-Projects is proud to present, as part of its Curatorial Program series, Lightly Structured, featuring work by Daniel G. Hill, Harry Leigh, Doreen McCarthy and Liz Sweibel. Curated by Patricia Zarate and in collaboration with Sculpture Space NYC-Projects and Key Projects.
Lightly Structured refers to a quality of “lightness.” This quality is found through a play with material, scale, weight and gravity - elements in the work of these four artists. Using diverse materials such as plywood, scraps of found wood, wire and vinyl, each artist creates structures, small to monumental, that visually look “light.”
Daniel G. Hill’s 3-dimensional wire drawings hang elegantly off the wall. The drawings have a flexible quality because of their constructional detail and engage in a contrary play with gravitational pull. Harry Leigh’s thin, bent wood constructions are simple geometric shapes that sometimes lean or hang on the wall. Proportioned to a human bodies’ reach, these works with their open structures silently command the space they occupy. By contrast, Doreen McCarthy’s biomorphic sculpture is a playful mass of inflated vinyl that glows from within (via LED lights). It is as if the air inside emits its own light, allowing the work to rest buoyantly in space. Small in scale, Liz Sweibel's sculptures use scraps of wood that are stripped to their bare essence and draw us into a world of minute details.
About the artists
Daniel G. Hill is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in sculpture, installation, painting, photography and digital media. He has exhibited in the U.S. for over 35 years and, more recently, in Europe, Asia and Central America. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; MoMA Library Special Collection; New York Public Library; Phillips Collection; Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Art Gallery; US Embassy, Beijing Embassy Annex, US Department of State; Arkansas Art Center; and in several corporate and private collections. He is the recipient of a fellowship in painting from the National Endowment for the Arts. He received an A.B., Magna Cum Laude, from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, C.U.N.Y. He lives and works in New York City. He is an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at the Parsons School of Design and has been the President of American Abstract Artists since 2013.
Harry Leigh received his Bachelors degree in 1953 from Albright Art School and SUNY College at Buffalo. Drafted into the Army in 1953, he trained as a radio operator and was stationed in West Germany. While serving in Europe, he traveled extensively, visiting museums and architectural sites. Upon return, he studied on the GI bill and was a student of Peter Volkus and received a Master’s degree in 1959 from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. He studied painting privately with Richard Pousette-Dart from 1956 to 1960. During this period he began experimenting with large constructed works using cardboard, plaster, and plywood, and by 1965 sculpture became his primary medium. In his first solo exhibition in 1967 at The Brata Gallery in New York City he realized the full assimilation of his diverse work, travel and educational experiences. Leigh currently lives and works in Suffern, NY.
Doreen McCarthy is a sculptor based in New York City whose work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan since 1985. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and Gropiusstadt in Berlin. She has had numerous solo projects including Heskin Contemporary, NY; Galerie Junger, Shanghai, China; Indiana University Institute of Art and Design and the foyer of a Philip Johnson building in Berlin, Germany to name a few.
Liz Sweibel is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and digital photography and video. Sweibel has participated in solo, two-person, and group exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, and Tennessee. Most recently, her work was in the group show Appropriation and Such at 337 Project Space in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2015, her work was featured in the flat files during KIOSK, a group show at ODETTA Gallery in Brooklyn. Sweibel received her B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and her M.F.A. from Maine College of Art. She also holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Counseling. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Sculpture Space NYC is a ceramics and sculpture center founded by artists Magda Dejose and Andrew Kennedy to foster creativity, concept and collaboration. SSNYC offers the space, equipment and advanced education to allow artists to explore and expand their work. In addition, SSNYC offers a range of classes, lectures, workshops, artist residencies and an ongoing exhibition program.
Patricia Zarate is co-founder of Key Projects, an artist-run gallery space based in Long Island City, New York. Through intimate exhibits of contemporary abstract and conceptual art, we explore and showcase an international community of artists.
(Image: Liz Sweibel, Untitled (Splinter #1); 2014, Found wood, paint; 1 7/8 x 1 1/2 x 1/2)