solo show / Bischoff Weiss, London 2013
Press release
BISCHOFF/WEISS is pleased to present a solo show of new work by Ali Silverstein. Her third solo exhibition at the gallery will unveil seven large paintings that signal a lively and intriguing expansion of the artist’s practice.
In her words, she has been “allowing the work to unfold, rather than being limited by a pre-ordained concept, strategy, or image”. She has cut vertical strips cut into the canvas to create long tassels; stuck shapes of canvas onto the paintings, or, in other works, painted over these shapes only to remove them, leaving the residue of triangles and arcs. By way of pink wave-like forms stacked in a pale yellow background, or twin drawings of vases and fruit mounted onto a bed of green plaid, each seems to fall vaguely into one of the traditional genres of “landscape,” “still life,” or “portrait”.
Defying easy identification, the works ask to be looked at on their own terms. Much of the work is still grounded in observation, but the rigor imposed by faithfulness to a single image or idea, by the commitment to seriality, has gone. The shapes now arrive, in paint and in cut-out canvas, serving a dynamic dialogue that has more to do with an evolving conversation, an improvised composition, a realtime experience of painting.
If some exhibitions feel like a culmination of an idea, the works in this show suggest their own continuous becoming.