Amy Feldman is a Brooklyn-based painter that PR was introduced to at the Portable Caves exhibition organized by HKJB back in February. Her work is concerned with examining the desire/control in the act of painting, as well as how the abstract becomes concrete through a combination of hard-edged shapes and loose brush-work.

Sidereal Gravy, 2009
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 68” x 80”

Hole, 2010
acrylic on canvas, 80” x 90”

Full Facade, 2009
acrylic on canvas, 31” x 41”

Ever After, 2010
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 80” x 90”

Feldman employs a calligraphic line with varied degrees of looseness and precision that give the work a slightly naughty, yet properly unified feel. Decorative elements, diamond shapes, knots, doilies are paired with brash gestures that firmly establish a confident, feminine identity.

Some of her recent, more primitive black marker drawings she has made into into bold, large scale paintings that is some of her strongest work to date. In these paintings she trusts the natural wavering of the hand to create simple, graphic shapes that celebrate the immediacy in the act of painting. This approach, coupled with her willingness to allow the painting to misbehave in her application gives them a simultaneously tough and vulnerable quality.

Studies, drawings

High Brow, 2009
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 24” x 24”

Sketchbook

In her own words:

"Operating within Modernist scaffolding, my paintings address figure/ground relationships. The ground competes with forms, indicating a complex coupling of vacancy and restraint. Scale and perception are crucial factors. The paintings’ relationship to the wall and its function in space are contingent on the dimensions of the outer edge and its scale. While there is a strong horizontal shift that occurs in my work, the vertical movement in the painting is also sped up, as the painting appears to be slightly caving in on the viewer.

Triangular images on the surface of the rectangle, allude to facades and physical structures, and are paired with raw gestural marks. The combination of hard edge lines and underdressed forms, reveal the architecture of the painting, while suggesting an interior-psychic space. There is a doubling that often occurs. The doubled forms function as signs in a linguistic space, acknowledging the process of painting as a spontaneous phenomenon and self-conscious practice. "

Scaffolding, 2009
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 36” x 35”

Cantilevers, 2009
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 40” x 52”

Secondary Fruit, 2009
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 36” x 42”

Past exhibitions include shows at Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles; Exit Art, NYC; and she recently completed a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Upcoming exhibitions include The Collective Show, at Participant Inc. opening Sunday, September 19 and You Can't Die in the Sky, at Eastern District opening Friday, September 24 in Bushwick.

- Vince Contarino, 09.10.10