BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN | Presenting new works by gallery artists Athanasios Argianas, Julia Bland, Zipora Fried, and Ryan Mrozowski, this exhibition explores the visual manifestation of two crucial aspects of sound: rhythm and repetition.
In fact, the exhibition title, “Persuasive Percussion,” was taken from a series of LP albums released in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Enoch Light (1905-1978), a classical violinist, bandleader and recording engineer credited with pioneering the use of a specific stereo effect, in which sound bounces between the right and left channels to establish an immersive aural experience. None other than Josef Albers, whose influential color theory most famously played out in rhythmic variations of colored squares, designed seven of the “Persuasive Percussion” LP covers. In this spirit, these contemporary positions have much to offer.
The sculptor Athanasios Argianas, for example, creates works that source from the composition and transcription of sound, as well as language.
He is particularly interested in the rhythms and frequencies of speech, and how the pronunciation of consonants and vowels can determine pattern and form.
In contrast, Ryan Mrozowski employs stock images of flowers, fruits, and dots, among other things, to create a sense of optical play.
Meanwhile, Zipora Fried’s “Night” series consists of colored pencil drawings, which are characterized by densely repeated gestures. Fried, one gathers quickly, is less interested in the particulars of language than in capturing the essence of a sensory experience at large. In her work, the hand serves as a link between an inner mood and its visual realization. In her large-scale, site-specific mural, for example, a group of reappearing heads succeeds in establishing a metaphor for the intersection of a psychological space and a material one.
By employing dyed, stitched and painted fabrics, canvas, as well as hand-woven supports, Julia Bland creates stunning paintings that imbue archetypal and familiar geometric forms with a strong sense of the personal. “Geometry is a kind of grammar,” the artist once poignantly remarked, adding, “Language breaks down into isolated moments.” In that sense, Bland’s work, despite its abstraction, seems to share more with intimate diary entries than with Albers’ use of geometry to illustrate his color theory.
Through Aug. 12 at On Stellar Rays (213 Bowery, btw. Rivington & Delancey Sts.). Hours: Tues.–Fri., 10am–6pm and Mon. by appointment. Call 212-598-3012 or visit onstellarrays.com.
