Clay Steps to Sea and Striped Sky, 2004
Enamel and oil on panels
60 x 90 inches
PRESS RELEASE
Kate Shepherd: Blue and Another Color
12 November – 17 December 2004
Opening reception: Friday, 12 November, 6 to 8 pm
Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by New York artist Kate Shepherd. Known for her original use of intense color, scale and a delicate yet descriptive painted line, Shepherd's work has beautiful references to architecture, gesture and portraiture.
Playing with perspective, Shepherd’s pieces are built on spatial complexity yet their surfaces are simple and clean. The viewer’s position is finely tuned in relation to the depicted image, establishing a contemplative resting place or a singular iconic impression to be absorbed at a glance.
The surface of the works are flat, yet there is an implied depth. The occupied spaces are recognizable, familiar. Shepherd’s mastery of perspective, her ability to bring three-dimensional vision to a two-dimensional plane, envelopes the viewer and gives each piece the feeling of being both close at hand and far away.
Shepherd’s paintings have been defined by the combination of different panels to comprise a whole. A study in color and form, each panel is luxuriously coated in seamless, high-gloss paint. The color relationships of the panels are finely tuned to create a unified light. Delicate lines are then painted on the grouping of panels, creating a space – interior or exterior – that serves as both philosophical and emotional metaphor. Repeated, linear patterns in perspective move over the painted surfaces to connote water, steps, wallpaper, etc.
All works in the exhibition feature varying shades of blue in harmony with contrasting or complimentary colors. The blues represent the sky, ocean, walls, a blanket; balance overall. There is serenity in the work, a sense of calm.
Historically, in Shepherd’s work, each painted panel has been distinctive from the rest; patterns and colors begin and end within the parameters of their own panel. This exhibition marks the first time that Shepherd is lifting these boundaries, allowing breaks in her paintings where the paint creeps past panel edges to promote an extended, expansive surface reading.
