Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Installation at BAM

The past couple of days I have been installing my piece 'Skewer Shower' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The piece will be installed in the main lobby of the Peter Jay Sharp Building until mid June 2014.
Next time you are in the area stop in and check it out.






















Katie Bell  Skewer Shower  9x13x1 ft.  Acrylic, wood, laminate, foam, drywall, plastic, linoleum, plaster, rubber bands, and nails on wall 2014  (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Peter Jay Sharp Building Lobby)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Monday, January 20, 2014

In conjunction with my solo show at Mixed Greens:

Group Exhibition: Implicit Horizon
Artists: Jarrod Beck, Alex Ebstein, Richard Tuttle, Maria Walker, 
Letha Wilson, B. Wurtz
February 13 – March 15, 2014
Opening: Thursday, February 13, 6-8pm

Mixed Greens is thrilled to present a group exhibition of abstract 
works by Jarrod Beck, Alex Ebstein, Richard Tuttle, Maria Walker, 
Letha Wilson, and B. Wurtz. All six artists—a mix of emerging 
talent and established virtuosity—have a visceral approach to their 
materials that culminates in poetic results. Each uses everyday 
materials and simple gestures to allude to large, often complex 
ideas that remind the viewer of our vast landscape. Working in the 
space between painting, sculpture, assemblage, photography, 
and drawing, the artists have significant attachment to the 
physicality of the materials they use and carefully combine 
elements to have an impact that far exceeds the footprint of the 
work. Much is implied with quiet gestures that carry great 
gravitas.

UPCOMING SOLO SHOW! OPENS FEB. 13TH


Mixed Greens is thrilled to present Katie Bell’s first solo exhibition in New York. A self-proclaimed “home-maker” and “home-wrecker,” Bell repurposes building materials and elements of interior design to make sculptural paintings that challenge familiar spaces, gendered dichotomies, and the history of painting.
Using everything from insulation foam to window blinds, shelf paper, laminate, carpets, and a discarded Jacuzzi, Bell mines the components used to build our living quarters and then complicates them through the language of painting. She questions the history of the objects, their purpose, and their context. Color, line, and texture are inherent in the materials themselves, and Bell accentuates those traits (by way of power tools and heavy lifting) to form manic, exploding compositions that teeter on walls and rupture into the viewer’s space. However, Bell controls the composition with simple gestures such as the judicious use of a piece rope or a simple, painted line.
In all of Bell’s works—whether large-scale, site-specific installations; smaller, self-contained paintings; or painting- like objects leaning uncomfortably on shelves—ideas related to excavation, construction, and mutation prevail. Her studio is a test site where she can combine, dismantle, and recombine her never-ending supply of ingredients. She debunks the viewer’s assumptions about the familiar raw materials as she plays with balance, weight, and motion. Shards of construction materials appear to defy gravity. Pieces of wood and layers of paint are static, but rarely appear so. Drips, splatters, taught rope, and expanding foam, all appear at a standstill but for a moment—as if each piece is holding its breath until the viewer leaves.

Light Weight refers to Bell’s boxing-like relationship with her unruly materials and her constant struggle in the studio that goes beyond the physical. While many of her pieces have been sawed, tied, and assaulted in a number of ways, there is also a delicacy that requires a light touch and careful maneuvering. As Bell collects materials, she is combining items that want to be together and others that need to be coerced. The title, and her process, signal Bell’s conscious complication of gendered dichotomies—such as light and heavy, weak and strong, soft and hard—and her sense of humor while tackling such heavy subjects.

KATIE BELL grew up in Rockford, IL, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. Her work has been exhibited in numerous group shows since then, including ones at Mixed Greens, New York, NY; the Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL; Nudashank Gallery, Baltimore, MD; Delicious Spectacle, Washington, DC; Storefront Ten Eyck, Brooklyn, NY; and FJORD Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. She has also had several solo exhibitions at venues such as BOX Gallery, Galesburg, IL; Okay Mountain Gallery, Austin, TX; Backspace, Peoria, IL; and the John C. Hutcheson Gallery, Nashville, TN. She has been a visiting artist at the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, UK; Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; and the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. In 2012, she received space at the highly competitive Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation studio program in Brooklyn. Concurrent to this exhibition, her work will be on view at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

MIXED GREENS -- 531 WEST 26TH STREET, 1ST FL -- NEW YORK, NY 10001 -- TEL: 212 331 8888 -- FAX: 212 343 2134 -- INFO@MIXEDGREENS.COM


Installation at BAM

One week from today I will be installing a 13 ft tall installation in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's lobby. It will be on view for about 6 months, so next time you are seeing a movie or a show, check out the wall near the escalator.



Feature in Viewpoint Magazine (UK)











Thursday, January 16, 2014