Viewing Room:

Andrea Belag | Lisa Beck

October 18 - November 12

The gallery is delighted to present a two-artist exhibition in our viewing room of paintings by Andrea Belag and Lisa Beck.  The exhibition runs concurrent to Bayne Peterson's solo exhibition of sculptures in our main galleries.  Four paintings by Lisa Beck made with acrylic and collaged metal elements on canvas are joined by three paintings by Belag in oil on linen.  Works by the two New York based artists (who have also been long-time friends) share the formal motif of the circle, which unfolds through different materials and styles.

Belag's paintings each feature a large circular form comprised by different colors brushed onto a white background with wide marks.  Belag's circular forms appear fluid and transparent, as though rolling and twirling along the surface.  As told to Paul Laster in a 2018 interview,

"I love transparency and the touch of materials, so I have created a way of painting where I make this possible. I use mostly transparent pigments and fine linen, and I paint wet into wet. The marks are on one layer of the painted surface with very little overlap or pentimento. Color makes space and light comes through the paint."

For Beck, circular forms create dimensionality in a different way.  Using circular collaged elements such as flattened foil to-go containers, can lids, and cut canvas, Beck creates a sense of relief where forms appear to burn through the canvas and float in space.  Her collaged orbs of silver and gold seem relish in their own natural textures and shine:

"I’ve been fascinated by round objects for a long, long time. I used to pick up any sort of garbage on the street—records, old tape cores, bottle caps, stones—if it was circular or spherical (OK, I still do, but I’ve limited myself). So I guess it’s some sort of obsession. But beyond that, the round form has so many associations: cell, planet, hole, location—and so many meanings: endlessness, perfection, emptiness, wholeness."

Lisa Beck was born in New York City and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1980.  Her works are in the collections of the Tang Teaching Museum of Skidmore College, the Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia, Italy, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, among many others.  Her works have been exhibited at Nathalie Karg Gallery, Elizabeth Dee, and Feature, among other galleries.  She will have a solo exhibition at Diane Rosenstein, Los Angeles, CA, opening in November.  Beck is the recipient of a 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and a 2021 Yaddo Residency.

Andrea Belag lives and works in New York City and Far Rockaway, Queens.  Belag attended Boston University, Bard Collage, and The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture.  She is the recipient of a 2015 MTA Arts & Design Commission, a Rockefeller Foundation Residency at the Bellagio Study Center, Italy, and a 1999 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.  Belag has received a prestigious Yaddo residency three times.  Her works have been exhibited at Miguel Abreu Gallery, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Philip Slein, St. Louis, Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, the Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, and the Mead Museum, Amhearst, MA, among others.