Krista Svalbonas: New Work and Influences

Brunswick E 13 14x14x2_oil on felt

Krista Svalbonas is an artist, fellow collaborator and close friend! Her work is included in a group show at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont through April 21. I am excited about the materiality, textility and sculptural feel of this work which contrasts the architectural geometry. Here is a review of Krista's recent installation that was in Kutztown, Pa.

I asked Krista for her statement and influences for the new work:

Brunswick E 02 14x14oil on felt

I have a longstanding interest in architecture, particularly urban environments. My work deals with low-income housing complexes; modernist architectural ideals, drawing from Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Soviet architecture; and the phenomenology of space. My cultural background as an ethnically Latvian/Lithuanian artist has informed this interest. In both countries’ capitals, during the communist era, cultural buildings were repurposed into warehouses; churches were demolished; the old town centers fell into decay. New constructions were made cheaply: no insulation, inadequate plumbing and heating. My connection to this history has made me acutely aware of the impact of politics on architecture, and in turn on a people’s daily lived experience.

I document what I see extensively, mostly through the use of a Fuji Polaroid camera for its instantaneous and immediate results. These images become the source material for my work.

Polaroid 4

Polaroid 08

There are particular artists that have inspired me due to their use of materials, their relationship to architecture or their use of space. A few of them are:

Sol LeWitt 

Imi Knoebel 

Zarina

Lisa Sigal

David Tremlett 

Elisabeth Sonneck 

Lastly, I continue to be influenced by the work of my peers and friends, too many to name. I feel very grateful to be surrounded by a wealth of fabulous artists whose tireless efforts continue to bring me inspiration in the studio.

Brunswick E 04 14x14 oil on felt

Brunswick E  4 14x14x2_oil on felt

Studio Visit with Matthew Langley

Medium Cool 30 x 36 o/c 2014

I stopped in and had a studio visit with artist Matthew Langley two weeks ago. We had a great time talking about his work, painting in general, materials, galleries, current exhibitions and life in general. The last time I wrote about Matthew's work was in 2009 on this blog.

"I've come across Matthew Langley's work on several blogs and enjoy looking at it on his website. One needs to spend some time with each piece as they reveal themselves over time-a mark here, a change in color and texture there. He incorporates a wonderful use of line -the grid, of course- with drawn lines of color and surface, along with a mindful use of the edge. I find the work playful with a rich painter's vocabulary." Blog post here

I wrote him after the visit:

"After seeing the new work I think there has been a shift in your palette, the layering process and the attention to surface. Also the work seems to be more minimal at first glance but actually contains a quiet lushness. What would say are the changes in the last 5 years?"

He responded:

"I think all of what you wrote is true.

I've become really interested in building the surfaces in a slightly different way lately. Earlier, I would build them in one broad color at a time. These days I'm far more likely to build the layers in multiple colors to allow the surface to slowly reveal that mark-making and paint action. I do find this approach adds to the lushness of the final work. I like that lushness, although it's not an end point. 

I think the work is more minimal than it was 5 years ago - the concerns towards the graphic quality have changed. I'm more focused on he process of building the image and a bit less on the graphic punch.

On top of all of the approaches and mark-making, I have started to develop a real fascination that the artwork must show the history of the making of the artwork as well. I have had some great and not so great success with this and it becomes something that continually pulls me back into the studio."

matthew langley

Love Songs on the Radio, 2014, 40x48, oil on canvas 

Love Songs on the Radio in progress

studio shot with Maggie

From Across The Kitchen Table. 24x30 o/c 

From Across The Kitchen Table, in progress

Photo catches the blue light from the studio window

From studio window

In Progress

Painting tools

Cooking rack with palette and tools

Something brewing on the side

 A Grand Complication, 2014, 24x30, Oil on Canvas 

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Krista Svalbonas and Lisa Pressman, Shifting Space until Feb 6th

ISE - Krista Svalbonas and Lisa Pressman- artist talk-1 from krista svalbonas on Vimeo.

ISE - Krista Svalbonas and Lisa Pressman- artist talk-2 from krista svalbonas on Vimeo.

Here is a tour of the collaborative site-specific installation, Shifting Space, at the Ise Cultural Foundation in NYC created by Krista Svalbonas and myself.

Working with curator, Lisbeth Murray, our proposal for a site specific installation was accepted by Ise Cultural Foundation. We began the project by visiting the site and taking photos of the interior and exterior neighborhood of Soho. We were both inspired by the art deco lamps, the floor patterns and the vintage elevators of the lobby. Before entering our respective studios we set a few "rules", including: the color palette, the size of the work, the use of building materials and using our photographs as source material. After contemplating many materials I chose to paint on insulation foam with oil paint, cold wax and pan pastels. Krista's work is oil and cold wax on industrial felt. After we completed our work Krista made the initial study for the wall drawings including both of our panel pieces. The first day of install the initial wall drawing was measured and begun. The second day of install the initial wall drawing was completed and the work was hung. The next day and a half, Krista and I worked collaboratively on the wall drawing, integrating aspects of each others work.

Collaboration is both wonderful and challenging. Although the final exhibition looks effortless there were quite a few bumps in the road for both of us artistically and personally. Different ways of working and seeing led to some conflict and and many discussions.  I realized the struggles that we were having with each other were very similar to the kind of struggles I experience with myself and my work in my studio. These struggles are what lead to new and exciting work. 

Image of right wall as you enter from street

As you enter the gallery to the right, 
Krista's painting and the beginnings of the wall drawing.

As we continue into the gallery, to the right, a collaborative wall drawing

Moving right, my paintings installed on collaborative wall drawing 

Detail

Detail

Looking back

Collaborative wall drawing

Looking down the wall

Painting by Krista along with wall drawing which was collaboratively finished.

Detail

Looking back install photo with art deco lights and floor patterns

Back wall:  My painting with collaborative wall drawing.

Detail

Elevator Bay

Left Wall: My paintings with wall collaborative wall drawing.

Detail

Collaborative wall drawing, detail

Press Release

Shifting Space is a collaborative site-specific installation located in the Front Space at ISE Cultural Foundation consisting of two-dimensional mixed media works and integrated wall drawings by artists Lisa Pressman and Krista Svalbonas. This exhibition is an experimental exploration of the artists’ different approaches to urban architecture and temporality.

The artists’ collaborative process began with a response to the gallery space, a muted nostalgic foyer with Art Deco light fixtures, inlaid geometric floor designs and vintage elevators. Visiting the site at various times of day, the artists documented via photography the inner and outer framework of the gallery and SoHo neighborhood to serve as the basis for their visual expression. As a result, their work refers to a wide range of imagery, such as cast iron, stone and brick facades, sleek columns, angled window frames and Art Deco patterns. Collectively their work directly reflects the continuous excavation and renovation of the urban landscape in New York.

Although the artists referred to the same contextual imagery and collaboratively decided the parameters for color palette, scale and the choice of industrial insulation materials as their substrates, this exhibition showcases the artists’ distinctly different styles and processes. Starting with an immediate visceral response, working intuitively, and exploring the dialogue between the incidental and intentional, Pressman plays with translucent and opaque layers of oils, collage, wax and other mixed media. Her works evolve over time, resulting in expressive abstract paintings that allude to a personalized time and space. Svalbonas’ practice is research- and conceptually driven. She extracts elements of the built environment to become the forms of abstract geometric structural paintings and wall drawings. She builds and overlaps layers of mixed media, allowing the straight-edged geometric forms to distort the viewer’s perception of depth and width, as well as echoing the organization of a city grid.The collaborative site-specific wall drawing pulls colors from the exterior facades of SoHo and forms from the Art Deco elements of the ISE front space. These elements are integrated with Pressman's and Svalbonas' paintings, creating a further dialogue about interior and exterior. 

Lisa Pressman received her MFA in painting at Bard College and was recently featured in Swept Away: Translucence, Transparence, Transcendence in Contemporary Encaustic at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA. Krista Svalbonas received her MFA in photography, design and sculpture at the State University of New York at New Paltz and has been awarded residencies at Cooper Union and the Vermont Studio Center. Both artists have solo exhibited in the New York tri-state area and have been selected for numerous group exhibitions and publications.