THE ABSTRACT FUTURE
Deitch is a gallery I can always depend on having some fun work on display. I was especially looking forward to seeing more work by Sam Falls—an artist I really love. His work reminds me of home (LA), the mist of natural colors forming oceanic silhouettes. I look at his work and I can hear the waves. I’d like to acquire a print soon or maybe even an original work one day.
I also have been drawn to more textural work lately. Artists that are experimenting with mediums and transforming 2D surfaces. I think this is because I’ve been a bit stuck in how to push my own work forward. Currently, I’m dyeing fabric and I love that process/medium but I’ve been spinning my wheels on how to or what to add to give my work more layers of conversation and intrigue.
I was really inspired by Maia Ruth Lee’s piece in the show. It looks most similar to something I’d make. Actually there’s a multicolored background that I made in 2020 that has similar texture characteristics to her work. I think it’s because the canvas fabric is coated with something that keeps it from being so absorbent. I found it frustrating because I wanted more blending and bleeding to happen with the colors. Lee is using Acrylic, likely watered down and in some sort of spray bottle. It sits and dries on the surface similarly, not much bleeding into the fabric at all which creates very high contrast between the parts hit with color and the cream surfaces hidden in the folds. It really works and was super impactful at the large scale of 64x100in. Knowing a bit of the process, I spent a while studying this one thinking about how they likely created this. Then how I would do it. I was inspired.
I’m working on getting a studio in NY, I look forward to applying what I’ve observed soon.
