preview

Vija Celmins

Better Essays

Matthew Marks Gallery recently opened solo show of Vija Celmins, one of the greatest contemporary female artists from United States. Celmins is well known for her precise rendered paintings, carefully copied from photographs and prints. For this exhibition, the artist presents 19 new works after 7 years of silence. There are paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. The entire space of the gallery is given to Celmins, since this is her first personal show with Matthew Marks Gallery.
Works are beautifully organized in two halls of the building, making it very easy for the public to move around. There is no decorations, just plain white walls. Known for being intimidating and intrusive at times, white background in case of this exhibition helps to direct viewer attention to Celmins’ works, erasing all possible disturbances between art pieces and person, who’s observing them. Indeed every work exists in its own “space”, which allows viewer to have almost personal connection to each object. Placement of the paintings far away from each other creates unique …show more content…

For this work, artist used canvas of almost 5 ft tall. Myriads of tiny stars are scattered over the darkest black of a night sky. This painting has such an incredible depth, that it is impossible to reach the background. The fulcrum is lost, and the painting looks like a window to the universe. Reverse Night Sky #4 (Fig.2) is a negative image of starry sky, where shiny stars are turned into black particles, and darkness of the sky is reversed to blinding brightness. It creates interesting feeling, as we could observe the underside of the cosmos. Another spacey painting is Untitled (Ochre) (Fig.3), for this work Celmins adds color to her monochrome palette. This work could look like photograph of the galaxy, with golden radiance behind numerous speckles of stars. Again, artist achieved infinite depth, that background totally

Get Access