Through April 7, 2012.
Diana Lowenstein Gallery is presenting Architectonics, a solo exhibition of new work by Miami-based artist Julie Davidow. For this exhibition, Davidow has created a series of paintings with a focus on the relationship between the architecture of contemporary art museums and the artwork that is enshrined within these structures. The term architectonics refers to characteristics of architecture, design and construction and relates to the scientific systematization of the totality of knowledge.
“Davidow surveys the formal qualities associated with how we interact with, and consume, contemporary art highlighting parts of our experience that we would ordinarily take for granted and overlook,” says independent curator and writer Claire Breukel, “Her work is minimal, yet precise and deeply obsessive.” The paintings seek to establish order through the mapping of multiple visual cues, while commenting on the struggle between the natural and built environments.
“My work has always involved an organizational grid. This grid has evolved to become ‘samples’ of other artists’ works,” says the artist. “More recently I have been interested in the architecture of the museums themselves and am now sampling elements of these buildings. The structure which holds the art becomes the scaffold of the painting itself. I use ‘sampling’ in a way similar to musicians,” she continues. “From an image I use of a building or of another artist’s work, I reduce it to the essential elements that reference its physical structure or composition. This creates the rhythm, beat, or geometry of the building or artwork.”
Some of the architecture sampled in Davidow’s paintings include the Denver Art Museum by Donald Liebskind, the Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art – Bloch Building by Steven Holl, the Fort Worth Museum of Art by Tadao Ando, and the De Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron.
Julie Davidow studied at New World School of the Arts in Miami. She has exhibited in The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Mass MOCA, North Adams, MA; the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, and numerous galleries nationwide. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Miami Art Museum and the Girl’s Club Collection in Ft. Lauderdale among others. Davidow is coauthor of Miami Contemporary Artists.
Diana Lowenstein Gallery
2043 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33127
305.576.1804
www.dlfinearts.com
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