Kate Shepherd: In In the Spring

PRESS RELEASE

Kate Shepherd: In In The Spring

8 April – 16 May 2008

Anthony Meier Fine Arts is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by New York artist, Kate Shepherd. For her third solo show at the gallery, Shepherd has created paintings in pairs - two paintings which have many similarities and subtle differences will be exhibited in the same space, encouraging the viewer to look again, closer.
 
A strong emotional sense of color and a sensitive understanding of space and perspective define Shepherd's work. The paintings consist of finely drawn lines over deeply saturated color on wood panels. While Shepherd's work is often architectural in subject matter, the paintings in this exhibition evoke more of an exterior space - seascapes, rain - as well as the movements of wind through an open window.
 
In the past, Shepherd's paintings have featured two or more colors, whether in compliment to one another or in contrast. In the past year Shepherd has made a marked turn toward monochromatic works. Even when two colors are used in the same painting - as in Dark Green Lace Curtain, Small Sway and Dark Green Lace Curtain, Slight Cupping - they are of the same tonal range, giving the effect of a more unified hue.
 
The title of the exhibition, In In The Spring, at once refers to springtime as a time of growth and new life, and also asks with the repetition of the word in that we look very closely to see that something is different.  
 
This double take is surely true of two of the largest paintings included in the exhibition. Swell, Dark Silver and Lower Swell, Dark Silver, evoke high seas on an early foggy morning. On a rich pewter background, waves drawn of fine, criss-crossing, white lines splash up the sides of the painting with varying velocity.
 
With each extra look beyond the first, new subtleties reveal themselves, providing endless opportunities to discover and enjoy Shepherd's unique choice of color, scale, surface, line, and touch.