Liane Ricci, Viaduct (2019), Acrylic on wood panel, 24″ x 36″

Wall Street International Magazine: Liane Ricci & Barbara Strasen

Liane Ricci and Barbara Strasen

27 Feb — 9 Apr 2020 at the Susan Eley Fine Art in New York, United States

Susan Eley Fine Art is delighted to present two solo shows featuring recent paintings by Liane Ricci, from Chapel Hill, NC, and Barbara Strasen, based in Los Angeles, CA. Ricci is represented by over a dozen abstract paintings on wood panel and a custom, hand-painted wall mural in the South Gallery; and Strasen with eight mixed media paintings on Yupo in the North Gallery.

Both artists have participated in solo and group exhibitions, as well as in art fairs with SEFA. The exhibition opens with an Artists’ Reception on Thursday, February 27, 6-8 pm, and remains on view through April 9, 2020.

Liane Ricci’s abstract paintings defy categorization. They are based in geometry and largely composed of bold lines dissecting and running alongside shapes, yet there is nothing linear or analytical about them. A lyricism and feminine grace permeate each painting. Bits of smoky, blurred color bleed across edges; drips soften flattened color fields and a general tonal sfumato pervades these new paintings.

The contrast in surface quality and the movement between linear elements tracing and sometimes hugging angular forms, keep the eye moving around in a type of carefully choreographed visual dance.

Barbara Strasen creates imagery plumbed from the depths of a fertile imagination and a trove of rich memories, in combination with signs, symbols and pictures inspired by advertising, TV, film, signage, billboards, magazines, medical texts and other sources. No image is dismissed as banal or unimportant. It is all important to Strasen, in a kind of hyper-democratic reflection of the insanely complex visual world we inhabit as denizens of the 21st century.

Given this diverse source material, one might think that Strasen’s paintings—acrylic, ink and collage on Yupo paper—would read as chaotic or unsettling. On the contrary, she finds the flow and lyricism amidst a complex layering of disparate imagery.

Read full press release on wsimag.com or susaneleyfineart.com

View installation images here.