Continuing through April 27, 2013
Arnold Newman’s classic 1942 portrait of Piet Mondrian comes to mind upon viewing the ruthless rectilinear compositions of Joan Waltemath’s "Latencies." Like Newman’s classic photograph — in which the revered Neo-Plasticist artist stands before two rectangular planes, his hand resting upon a guillotine-like easel — Waltemath’s compositions are etudes on the perpendicular. Each piece is the about the same size and proportion. This uniform verticality imparts a consistency across the exhibition, a feeling of a priori visual harmony that obliquely suggests an argument from design.
Within this homogeneity, the artist finds a range of compositional and chromatic moods. Using media such as oil, interference pigments, fluorescents, zinc, and pewter on aluminum panels, she creates manifold effects of graded hue and surface. The gunmetal blue and charcoal gray of "distressed tress (West 41, 3, 4, 7 …)" is invigoratingly offset by two chunky lines in bright red. In "Umarmung or Marsha’s two ways (West 51, 3, 4, 7 ...)," sparkly black zinc and complementary shades of gray are thrillingly offset by twinkly blocks of lime green and aubergine. By subtly varying her tactics from piece to piece, Waltemath imbues this body of work with an individuality that commands close attention.
