Current Exhibition
November 5 – December 7, 2024: MARK MY WORDS
View info about the artists and the artworks available here.
The phrase “mark my words” is a very commanding and directed message, loaded with determination. It can be received as an action, a threat, a promise, but it actually says more about the speaker than anything else. It’s the speaker’s “(my) words” that are marked with emphasis, or “set in stone” so to speak, as words were set in ancient times. The words to be marked are personal and denote ownership, as a signature, a signing-off, a declaration, an undisputed truth, or as “you have my promise.” Period.
In this exhibition, MARK MY WORDS doesn’t only describe a strong statement, but it indicates the mark left from words regarding a specific time, premonition, or personal feeling. The two artists in this show feel the need to say something, and share their points of view. Making a statement in visual form has more permanence than spoken language, and it can be reproduced and reach a larger audience. These artists are compelled to have their voices heard (and seen), whether on social issues, our current politics, or simply how interesting and dimensional a single word can be.
Like many artists during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dolores Poacelli had a lot of time to contemplate the political climate, and experiment with her artwork. She expressed her strong feelings as daily relatable statements in textual compositions, which extended to creatively playing with letter shapes. Viewers get to know Poacelli’s concerns up close, in what has grown into a collection of visual megaphones and ultimately a book, The Pandemic Diaries. And getting more familiar with posting these compositions on Instagram, she can shout even further.
Artist E. Sherman Hayman uses her signature sgrafitto techniques in not only word marks, but in cleverly communicating their definitions. And in HOW. MANY. MORE. select names of cities and locations surround “[Your Town Here]” as a foreboding “fill in the blank.” The statement behind the work is easily understood by anyone who recognizes the growing number of mass shootings in America. Likewise, we understand more about Hayman’s concern just from the title of the work. Symbolic arrangement and word associations, provide the viewer with all they need to know. The message is a loud and clear call to action.
Past Exhibitions
October 10 – November 2, 2024: S. Leser ’68 + Kaleidoscopes
View info about the artist and the artworks available here.
This exhibition, invites viewers to experience a treasure-trove of never-before-seen patterns and designs from 1960s New York. S. Leser’s graphic designs have been all at once described as playful, geometric, groovy, and obsessive. Motivated by Op-Art and Orphism movements, the shift from her 1960s designs to ’70s and ’80s patterns coordinate with what was fashionable and the pop culture of the time. Mod color-blocking and psychedelic-like treatments give way to Memphis-inspired patterns, while still retaining her signature illustrative style. Some of the colorful works are made with fluorescent paints which glow under black light, and many of her black-and-white designs come to life as vibrating or turning optical illusions.
In the 1990s, S. Leser created her Kaleidoscopes series, a huge collection of concentric circular designs inspired by the classic toy, but experimenting with halftones in place of colors. Extraordinary detail and symmetry in contemporary design often points to the use of digital mediums, but every piece created by Leser is painstakingly hand-drawn. As obsessively meticulous her designs may be, there are tiny imperfections that indicate a very determined artist was behind them.
Leser’s Kaleidoscopes are easily compared to the mandala (circle in Sanskrit); a symmetrical and balanced design symbolizing the universe, common to South Asian religions and spiritual practices. And locals may instantly recognize similarities to hex signs of the Pennsylvania Dutch. There is also an obvious connection to the human disposition towards order, geometry and an innate mathematics. Although Leser might disagree that there’s any connection to math, she does experience creating the designs as a somewhat spiritual practice of deep concentration and flow.
Highly influenced by, and a collector of vintage Emilio Pucci fashion, S. Leser has been inspired and encouraged to apply her designs to textiles. She plans to launch the S. Leser ’68 brand with partners in the near future.
September 3 – October 5, 2024: GHOSTS
View info about the artists and the artworks available here.
How do we leave our mark? Is it our bones, our words, our image, our legacy? Does it last? GHOSTS considers the curious in context, presenting captured moments that direct us to question, and unknown stories packed tight in precise symbols meant to last.
Carla Vaughan’s images deliver precise fleeting moments in larger contexts (like a snowy day), but also consider individual figures, alone or moving in concert, that bring forth even more questions. She says “I am inspired by the anonymity of people, whose stories I don’t know, but want to know. I am drawn to subjects who are alone, quiet silhouettes in solitude.” In Vaughan’s Familiar Strangers, these anonymous individuals are caught in a unique shared moment. They look like choreographed zombies moving together in a dream. Because we may never know what is really occurring in an image of life, she adds, “Whether the scene is present on the city street or placed in a frame, the viewer will complete the story.”
It’s common to experience people “in passing” like an object in our path, “ships in the night,” and one of many. In regards to living people moving through time and those who have “passed,” everyone plays both roles; the anonymous somebody, and the real somebody with a full story, the story that remains a mystery. If only ghosts could talk!
Ed Snyder says, “There is something very intimate about being in a snow-covered cemetery by yourself. Leaving one’s footsteps in silence serves as a reminder of the shared human experience of mourning, remembrance, and the fact that life does, in fact, go on.” Snyder’s images contemplate larger complex stories reduced to small symbols with simple clues. Even if the stories are forgotten, there is a marker to remind us there were some.
As physical markers go, the cemetery is a shared context; the gravestone a symbol of an individual that is far more complex and meaningful than the indicator could ever express. Likewise, a unique still image is the embodiment of a moment in context, an elaborate multifaceted mark, frozen in time.
July 11 – August 31, 2024: YOU ARE HERE
View info about the artist and the artworks available here.
YOU ARE HERE at Box Spring Gallery not only invites the viewer to join artist Michael S. Heitler on city tours and site-seeing, but demonstrates ourselves as a visual culture, where signs, directions and advertising dominate. Easy to recognize in regards to our daily experiences, our environment is both supported and informed by visual communication, and an enhanced environment can spark curiosity and even seduce. Here, icons of advertising are present in traditional painting, and include textual elements, banners, flags and bright colors. The title YOU ARE HERE is taken from the indicator phrase on orientation signs, commonly used in amusement parks, hiking trails, shopping malls, and tourist attractions.
June 4 – 30, 2024: MEMPHIS, MILANO, MIAMI
View info about the artists and the artworks available here.
The inaugural exhibition MEMPHIS, MILANO, MIAMI at Box Spring Gallery demonstrates one way where art and design meet. The selected works, when shown together, bring to mind the Memphis Milano design movement and Miami deco-influenced postmodernism, whether intentional or not.
Established in December 1980 by Ettore Sottsass, Italian design firm Memphis Milano, and a multitude of imitators of the “Memphis Style,” defined the 1980s. Whether in bright primary colors or whimsical pastels, the shapes were geometric, blocky, intrusive, and set to challenge modern design. It was a nod to both Art Deco and Brutalism but with contemporary flair; experimental, controversial and playful at the same time.
Similarly, Miami Beach is famous for its Art Deco buildings, built for resort clientele after the Great Depression and into the early 1940s. After falling out of fashion decades later, the 1980s brought a new international appeal to the city, and its Art Deco architecture became desirable once again. Developers re-embraced the city’s “Tropical” and “Med-deco” styles and applied them to postmodern projects. The 1988 film Pastel Paradise, documents South Beach’s revival, both historical and contemporary, in beachy hues.
Postmodern design clearly pays tribute to Art Deco, Pop, but most of all FUN. These styles influenced architecture, fashion and graphic design of the time, as well as its contemporary re-emergence — think rounded corners, step downs, confetti patterns, Miami Vice.
Participating artists: Terri Fridkin (prints, wood constructions), Jeff Harris (pastel drawings), and Robert Reinhardt (prints, collages).
June 13, 2024: Box Spring Gallery Opens
