Jasmina Danowski,
Anastasia Jones, 2011
Ink and gesso on paper, 60 x 40 inches
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Spanierman Modern is pleased to announce the opening on April 14, 2011 of Jasmina Danowski: Meridians Ago, an exhibition of vibrant new abstract works in oil on canvas, alkyd on panel, and ink and gesso on paper. Creating sensual worlds of luminous emanation, Danowski forms fields of connection and interaction with color, texture, and mark, balancing spontaneous rhythm and thoughtful restraint. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue (available for $25) with an essay by the noted poet and critic John Yau, along with full-page color illustrations of many of the works.
As in the art of Joan Mitchell, Danowski's paintings carry reminiscences of nature and still life, but their force is associative rather than literal, evoking the feeling of being in, aroused by, or moving through flowers and landscapes or time and space, informed by memories of recent trips to Maine and the East End of Long Island. Making her own ink and paint and working on the floor, Danowski explores the implications that result during the creative process; she follows her marks to points of decision and logical consequences, exploring the middleground between the abstract and pictorial, between the totality and individuality of forms, and between denotation and connotation. As John Yau has written: “Danowski's uninhibited delight in mark making is rare in contemporary painting, and the anti-puritanical strain running through her work is certainly one of its distinguishing characteristics. It is as if the brushwork, which owes something to both
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Asian calligraphic art and a potter's hands-on directness, is further informed by the opulent vision of paradise found in Persian Miniatures (another affinity she shares with [Howard] Hodgkin), the material insistence of the gestural brushwork that we associate with Abstract Expressionism, and Fairfield Porter's uncanny ability to reveal the extraordinary beauty of ordinary life. The artist has pulled off the unlikely possibility of infusing nature abstraction with a celebratory vision that edges up against the primordial. Everything is in a state of formation and deformation.”
Danowski was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and received her B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute (1990), and her M.F.A. from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (1997). She received two Pollock-Krasner awards (2001 and 2005) and has shown her work at Boston Center for the Arts; Dumbo Arts Center Festival, Brooklyn; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Spanierman Modern, New York; the Westfield State Downtown Art Gallery, Massachusetts; and Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina . Her work is in the collections of the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, and Westfield State University, Massachusetts. |
