Poignant Trash new works by Connie Noyes

Poignant Trash

new works by Connie Noyes

September 10 – October 23, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, September 10, 6-8 pm

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Connie Noyes "Poignant Trash". An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, September 10, 2010, 6-8 pm.

"Poignant Trash" is part of Connie Noyes' new series "Human Steps", which references the many disparate elements encountered in daily urban life - a metaphor for the way in which dark affects light and vice versa, how the sweet can become sickly if overdone and how close proximity to millions of people, diverse cultures and visual images can both inspire and overwhelm. It is a metaphor for tight quarters, pleasant or not so pleasant meetings and vibrant energy of the city in contrast to shadowy and emotionally difficult places.

For "Poignant Trash", Noyes uses what most people consider garbage as a jumping off place in the work. The materials at one point might have been utilitarian, but were never considered beautiful. The recycled styrofoam, roofing paper, shiny, plastic surfaces often synonymous to commercial objects, would never pass inspection as such. Dirt falls onto the canvases, scratches, cracks, marks occur and there are no straight lines, only the illusion of such. Through the act of turning detritus into “works of art”, or elevating the prestige of garbage, Noyes aims to question the status quo of beauty, worthiness and usability.

poignant trash
searches for value,
in the mundane.
a metaphor for
the discarded.
the dismissed.

poignant trash-
utilitarian materials
never before beautiful.
layers information,
of opposition,
in the same space.

poignant trash
playful
grotesque,
upon close inspection.
the dirty and damaged
are delicately beautiful.

poignant trash,
though often ignored,
is on view daily.
look more, see more
it vies for emotional appeal.
glance away.

poignant trash
is waste
elevated in prestige
by context.
strong.
fragile.
unapologetic.

Connie Noyes (b. 1955, Washington, DC) lives and works in Chicago.
Noyes is an award-winning painter whose work has been exhibited in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and abroad in London, Florence, Paris and Malaysia. In the 4th Annual Florence Biennale in 2003, she took a 5th place prize in painting from a field of 500 painters. She has been selected for prestigious residencies, including the Emaar International Art Symposium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2005); the Thupelo International Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa (2005); and the 6th Annual International Symposium of Art in Bulgaria (2006). Noyes' work is in a number of public and private collections including that of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned her MFA in 1980.

For more information on Connie Noyes "Poignant Trash" please contact Ewa Czeremuszkin at info@ec-gallery.com or call 312.850.0924.

Junko Yamamoto at EC Gallery

By Chicago Art Magazine on May 25, 2010 in Featured, Reviews

By Robin Dluzen

EC Gallery is hosting the first Chicago exhibition for Tokyo-born, Seattle-based artist, Junko Yamamoto. The gallery, which trades off the small, but bright Fulton Market exhibition space with Kasia Kay Art Projects, is displaying a selection of oil paintings and small scale prints on paper in the exhibition “In between, you and I, there is space all around us.” The collection of paintings, entitled “Shunyata Series,” (Shunyata is the “Sanskrit word for ‘emptiness’”), explores the voids and the fullness of pictorial spaces.

Yamamoto’s paintings are square in format, and modestly sized. Square paintings afford artists a little bit of freedom from the rectangles of traditional painting; without referencing the portraiture of the vertical rectangle or the landscape of the horizontal, the square for Yamamoto allows for her all-over patterns exist as a moment in, or a fragment of, a continuous pattern. Her squares in the Shunyata Series appear unbound by their edges and dimensions, and they prompt their viewers to visualize the rest of an endless composition. And the notion that viewers must imagine a picture beyond what’s on the canvas locates these paintings somewhere outside of illusionistc space, to where we could begin to think about them possibly inhabiting the real world.

Composed of layers of different colors, forms and kinds of mark-making, the paintings bring to mind the layers of an urban environment. Though the artist professes that she “loves muted colors,” each painting begins with an all-over layer of cadmium red, applied with a printer’s roller. Instead of dealing with the intimidating, empty, neutral canvas that most painters dread, Yamamoto’s solution is to begin with one of the most dynamic, saturated colors available, and then set the painting into motion by progressively softening that first layer. It seems important for Yamamoto’s making process to create a foil against which to respond. Like the cadmium red that induces the addition of the pastels, the artist describes the employment of oil paint as a sort of antagonist; the oil paint forces the artist to slow the painting process down, in order to create a “past” or history for the finished product. Leaving layers of paint visible underneath the stenciled forms, painted groupings of circles and the graphically outlined ovals and flowers are what bring to mind the passage of time that is documented by the layers of graffiti and wheat-pasted posters of city life.

But what’s surprising in the works’ relationship to the graffiti-like references –that are often connoted as loaded and gritty—is the enduring lightness and sweetness of the finished paintings. All the palettes are light pastels, in greens, yellows, pinks and purples and make a blissful environment in which the flowers and the delicate, abstracted little characters can inhabit. As much as the paintings are about building a unique history for the painting and encouraging pictorial space within the confines of the super-flat, two-dimensional medium, they end up expressing just as much about the importance of beauty and decoration in the everyday.

“In between, You and I, there is space all around us” is on display May 14 – June 19, 2010 at EC Gallery, 215 North Aberdeen, Chicago.

Junko YamamotoIn between, You and I, there is space all around us

Junko Yamamoto

In between, You and I, there is space all around us

May 14 - June 19, 2010

Opening reception with artist: Friday, May 14, 6-8 pm

Junko Yamamoto, I choose this way, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Junko Yamamoto "In between, You and I, there is space all around us". An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, May 14, 2010, 6-8 pm.

Junko Yamamoto’s abstract paintings are based on the idea of Shunyata - a Sanskrit word for “emptiness.” The Shunyata Series represents ongoing memories of texture, color and space. These are meditative, dreamlike explorations of consciousness, colored by the contradiction of fullness and emptiness.

Yamamoto continues to explore her on going theme about space between all of the atoms, spaces between people, objects, air between this room and that room; the glue and energy of the entire universe which is holding us together. She likes to push and pull two dimensional spaces with paint, ink and visual motion to make them with three dimensional depth and extension.

Yamamoto’s abstract art straddles Japanese pop culture while remaining distinctly separated from the crowd. Her Shunyata series, which may become her life’s work, is a beautiful collection that revels in opulent decorative detail.

Junko Yamamoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, now lives and works in Seattle. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in 1999.
Yamamoto’s work has been exhibited world-wide. Her works has been shown at numerous places such as: Gallery IMA, Wright Now at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House, King County Art Gallery aka 4 Culture, Bel- levue Art Museum, SAM Gallery, Kirkland Arts Center, Poncho Foundation, Henry Art Gallery, Gas Gallery (Torino, Italy), Fresh Paint Art Gallery (Culver City, CA), Andrea Schwalts Gallery (San Francisco), Lotus Roots Gallery (Osaka, Japan), J Trip Gallery (Tokyo, Japan), Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho. Her works are included in the collections of Swedish Cancer Institute, Harborview Medical Center, Aspen Hotel Group and Mulvanny G2 Architecture.

Yamamoto has been featured in publications such as The Art in America Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler, Studio Visit Magazine and Art Ltd. Magazine.

Review: Justyna Adamczyk/EC Gallery

Justyna’a Adamczyk’s “New Paintings” is a taut, elegant show of eight roughly similar paintings from 2009. They are all the same size, 23.5 by 27.5 inches, and the same material, washed-out acrylic on linen. They all embrace white space and, at their best, simplicity. They also seem to represent a journey, taken clockwise around the gallery, of an artist discovering and developing her strength. “Sztukas” is the title of the first work, which is an apparently untranslatable Polish word meaning… “something untranslatable.” An opaque white cloud—noteworthy for the absence of opaque forms—rains down a tangle of vines that might festoon a ceramic tile or a teapot, engendering an initial fear that the work is too decorative, too crafty; a fear that is then gradually dismissed. By painting the final painting, “Seriously…,” any sign of the stiff knick-knackery is gone, replaced by two dark washes of varying opacity. A large blob reads as a torso. A second, thicker blob is an ominous, even brutal shape, like a bird pecking out the eyes of a dead man or thoughts forcibly escaping the brain and turning into a comic thought-bubble, mocking and cruel. In between these two extremes is the transition, with each work selectively adding and subtracting elements, searching for the best fit. Cutesy lipstick puckers and seashells are first allowed to exist alone, before being met with threats of violence. The tchotchkes then disappear altogether, but for the remnant bloody splash, and finally a vague remembrance. Adamczyk’s process hones the work to its finest point of expression, leaving me with hopes of the next works to come. (Erik Wennermark)

Through February 13 at EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen

Views of America, views from Poland

Justyna Adamczyk at EC Gallery

By Lauren Viera, Tribune reporter

February 5, 2010

There's nothing quite as refreshing as stumbling upon the work of a bright, young artist who's never before been exhibited in the U.S., especially with perfectly cheery images that offer an instant antidote to a subfreezing, snow-blistered afternoon.

This small collection of new works of Polish painter Justyna Adamczyk is all light and breathy and free, achieved in both her straightforward use of simple materials (acrylic paints; ecru, thinly bound linen canvases) and the lightness of her hand. There is color — sometimes quite a bit, sometimes rather faint — but mostly, there is whitespace, and with it, room for the images to breathe.

Most of Adamczyk's paintings are fantastically abstract, but a handful look like ghostly portraits. "Pale" (2009) is all lipstick: the double-blot of candy-colored lips that practically float in the middle of the canvas look almost as if Adamczyk herself might have leaned forward and planted them there. "Sztukas" (2009) is the most illustrative of the eight on display here. Poufy clouds are painted on an aqua-blue sky just big enough to hold them; below is a lovely, jellyfish-like mess of neatly painted vines and curlicues.

There are visible pencil strokes on several of these canvases, which at first I wrote off to sloppiness, but they come into play in works like "Seriously …" (2009), the starkest of the lot. There's a bare silhouette of gray with a thought-bubble burst of black above, seeping into this ghost-figure's brain. Below, hundreds of tiny, penciled-in exes begin to form the torso. It's intriguing, to be sure, and beautiful.

Justyna Adamczyk at EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen St., 312-850-0924; ec-gallery.com; through Feb. 13

lviera@tribune.com

Justyna Adamczyk : New Works at EC Gallery

By Chicago Art Magazine on Jan 25, 2010 in Featured, Reviews

by jeffery mcnary

“I don’t want to communicate directly with the thoughts of people seeing my art. I’d like to provide a road show which allows for personal reflection”, notes Justyna Adamczyk. Her current exhibition, New Paintings at the EC Gallery is a challenging row toward that ambition.

“In my work, for many years, I have tried many media, but over time I realized that I speak sincerely in the media which is painting. Painting gives me the opportunity to comment on my subjective reality. The work connected with the fatigue of everyday life, trivial but inevitable problems.” Theoretically, at least, she holds that in a highly structured world, there is need to experience spiritual growth. “Painting is my valve, which allows escape and turns them into tame pictures.”

“Cannibal”, acrylic on linen, as in her other pieces,appears spontaneous, with the artist being there, not just copying it. Here her pinks and orange are staggering, as if a silhouette’s hair has been set ablaze. The untreated, grayish brown linen hands the paint over to the viewer. It’s a new romanticism.

Determinately, her shades and stain on the fabric, the pastel rose, browns, yellows of varying tones, read aloud from the cloth, as if having been about for ages. It could be dry blood. It could be cancerous blobs. “I have always been attracted to the works of artists who pass themselves and their subjective view of punk”, she says.

One questions, has the artist returned to adolescence in, “Range of Flavors”, acrylic on linen. Not stating its inspiration directly, rather it plays with color, with shapes, and sometimes brushes about aesthetic presence with thorny figures, rained upon by Jungian dreams and complexes in the form of a lab experiment run wild upon the work. There is a special, different kind of authenticity in this experience.

In these images the viewer finds autonomy and color associations, visions and insinuations. Some appear soiled, and wander off, but hardly into the mundane. There cycles are short, but in there shortness form narratives.

Adamczyk touts Frida, Mark Ryden, Matthew Barney, and Kim Sooja as influences on her work. “These are characters from whom I have learned a lot. They are completely different, in views of reality”, she says. “In addition to this they differ personally and intimately. An important issue for me is the impact on the viewer. I’m looking for language that allows the viewer to feel my idea.”

It is difficult to find excess in the paintings. They’re almost involuntary. Adamczyk’s provocation is at the heart of artistic exhibitionism. “Any idea seems to be perfect when I got it in my mind or on a sketch”, she says, “but the battle begins at the time of transfer…the move to the real picture. I try to be as close as possible to what arises from the first thought or impression.” That, she maintains, is the impulse to the creation of the image.

With her, works are created and driven by a very personal inspiration. They are offerings…to us…and to what remains in each of us individually. This should be appreciated.

The artist’s works has been exhibited in a host of venues including Biennale of Painting “Bielska Jesien 2009, Poland; 9 Contest Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Poland; Joung polisch Painters I-XII, Bestregarts Gallery – Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura de Caja de Extremadura; More or Less, Musemu da Ciencia e da Industria – Porto, Portugal and Aula de Cultura de Plasencia. She received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2007. This is her first U.S. exhibition.

Justyna Adamczyk : New Works will be on display at EC Gallery from January 15th to February 13th. EC Gallery is located at 215 North Aberdeen Street Chicago, IL 60607.

New Paintings : Justyna Adamczyk

January 22 - February 13, 2010

Opening reception:

Friday, January 22, 6-9pm

Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of New Paintings by Polish contemporary artist Justyna Adamczyk in her first U.S. showing. An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, January 22, 2010 from 6-9 PM.

Justyna Adamczyk: New Paintings will feature works from 2009, including eight oil paintings. In Adamczyk’s work, past lives in present as a memory re-imagined. Her complicated reveries unfold in her artwork, as they re-conceive the past, and expose the emotions as she remembers from her childhood and adolescence. The artist presents her memories in her individualistic style, producing a visual language. Adamczyk prompts the viewer to create their own version of the narrative.

The New Paintings on view retain little of the artist’s familiar imagery, but continue to evoke hope and confidence, signifying that the memories or the past are still fresh somewhere. Color, tone and organic spots of paint are the essence of her painting, holding psychological and symbolical meanings.

Distinct, organic spots of paint which create discreet physiological allusions, splash and splatter in various proportions on the unprimed, fine cotton canvas changing the work into a piece of art which becomes a place of nearly per formative action.

Justyna Adamczyk’s language can be gentle and full of allusions as well as literal. Her painting proves that art is not about building forms, but rather showing the forces which govern them.

In her composition, Adamczyk often chooses one dominant element which takes on most of the impact, drawing attention to itself. It is constructed and positioned among other elements, conveying a strong desire to explain all doubts.

There are many ‘dominating’ elements, but they do not compete with each other thanks to clear rules of hierarchy. Her works communicate a difficult range of topics such as feminism, sexuality, the existence of a relationship with herself and with the world.

Justyna Adamczyk (b. 1981 in Poland) lives and works in Wroclaw, Poland. Her work has been exhibited in European venues including Biennale of Painting "Bielska Jesien 2009, Poland; 9 Contest Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Poland; Joung polisch Painters I-XII, Bestregarts Gallery - Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura de Caja de Extremadura; More or Less, Musemu da Ciencia e da Industria - Porto, Portugal and Aula de Cultura de Plasencia. She received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2007. Adamczyk was a board member of ArtTransparent Foundation (2006-2008).

For more information on Justyna Adamczyk: New Paintings please contact Ewa Czeremuszkin at info@ec-gallery.com or call 312.850.0924