Paintings by Aleksandra Shineleva

May 12, 2012 - June 22, 2012

Painter Aleksandra Shineleva’s exhibit Zoomin’ In addresses the challenge of uniting accurate physical representation with a true-ringing disclosure of her subject’s interior life.

Initially trained as an illustrator, Aleks notes she was “always more interested in fine art and the human figure. A lot of my work are people and body parts, in this case mostly feet and hands, because I think those are very hard to paint from a technical point of view, and are also a huge part of us as humans.”

Feet and hands may be extremities, but they are central to our identity. Feet, in addition to being difficult to paint, are generally shod, hidden from view and, as such, are particularly intimate. Hands adopt the form of their labor and passion.

It is the eyes, though, that reign as primary vessels of revelation. That is why in some paintings Shineleva leaves blank the windows to the souls of her sitters – because after submitting to having their image painted “they are already exposed enough.” It’s a sign of respect and discretion.

Much of the “non-technical” aspect of her image-making involves an exploration of the sitter/painter relationship. For Aleks this generally doubles as a friend-to-friend relationship - one that can stretch the capacity of pictorial depiction and lead to a discovery that she “may know too little or… too much.”

These explorations lead to an entirely new entity: a painting that lives independently with its own inner life that meets you, the viewer, fully exposed.

The show, Zoomin’ In, resides at the Adjacent to Life pop-up gallery currently housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B: 10-B to regulars). Drop by for revelatory espresso and art to match. On view through May 11.

posted by Mark Roth

[image above: Hands & Feet, oil on wood panel, 16” x 20”]

Paintings by Rachel Taylor

March 23, 2012 - May 11, 2012

Painter Rachel Taylor unspools sloshing puddles of human experience. Swamp Bobbin depicts the fluidity of life’s processes and the impermanence of description.

Taylor’s expansive spills and unforced accidents of ink, coffee, paint and other ephemera are informed by the swamps of her native Louisiana. Rachel observes that in the swamp “there is no confinement. It just spills everywhere.”

She turns skeletons into puddles, finding commonality in the surge, ebb and flow we share with each other and with the larger environment. Hers are paintings of the wet, warm interior – an interior that is permeable and non-localized.

Rachel’s “given up on straight lines,” even jettisoned the traditional geometry of stretched canvas by turning to paper. With these works she asserts paper’s inherent beauty: it’s irregularity, familiarity and implication of human touch. It has a lightness of material and perception that welcomes the “organic, informal nature of drawing.”

These paintings are visual equivalents to daily life. They revel in knowing that every pool or splash we encounter or create is but the freshest iteration of the originating primordial soup, from which everything we love has emanated.

The show, Swamp Bobbin, resides at the Adjacent to Life pop-up gallery currently housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B: 10-B to regulars). Drop by for essential espresso and art to match. On view through May 11.

posted by Mark Roth

[image above: Tread, ink, oil and coffee on paper, 40” x 83”]