The Washington Post features MAYA FREELON and AMBER ROBLES-GORDON

In the galleries: ‘Interact + Integrate’ requires audience participation

By: Mark Jenkins

Fabric scraps and damaged tissue paper are the essential ingredients of new work now at Morton Fine Art. Those materials might sound negligible, but Amber Robles-Gordon and Maya Freelon employ them with ambition and impact.

MAYA FREELON, Bubble 2, tissue ink monoprint, 44″x 74″

Freelon’s technique began with what her statement calls a “beautiful accident”: finding colored tissue paper stained by water from a leaking pipe. From this discovery, the North Carolina artist developed a method of bleeding pigment from moistened colored tissue onto sheets of white paper, which are so thick they hang as if they’re fabric.

The larger works in “Rebirth/Rebound” were made with a pottery wheel, so the transferred hues spin with verve and grace. The dominant color is often magma-dark red, framed by black and green and white bubbles that evoke the images’ aquatic origins. The most direct print, “Suspension,” is mostly orange and yellow, which flow with the exuberance of a classic abstract-expressionist canvas. Freelon’s accident yields pictures that are assured and bold.

AMBER ROBLES-GORDON, Kepler 19-b Super Earth, mixed media on paper, 36″x 36″ 

Robles-Gordon, a D.C. native, is known for hanging strands of textiles and other found objects in intricate arrangements. The pieces in her “Third Eye Open” are wall-mounted rather than suspended, and feature circular drawing-collages orbited by smaller rounded objects, some partly covered in bits of garments. The forms suggest zygotes and planets, as well as eyes, but at the heart of each of the larger circles is a leafy motif. Whether seen as cosmic or botanical, the artist’s circling compositions exalt natural cycles.

Maya Freelon: Rebirth/Rebound and Amber Robles-Gordon: Third Eye Open Through May 15 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW. 202-628-2787. mortonfineart.com.

You can view all available artwork by these talented artists here on our website! 

“Reveries” opens Fri, Feb 21st 2014 – Installations by JASON SHO GREEN and VICTORIA SHAHEEN

 

REVERIES

Robotic installations & drawings by

JASON SHO GREEN and ceramic installations & wall mounted sculptures by VICTORIA SHAHEEN

February 21st, 2014 – March 18th, 2014

 

OPENING RECEPTION 

Friday, February 21st, 6pm-8pm

 

EXHIBITION LOCATION

Morton Fine Art (MFA)

1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts)

Washington, DC 20009

 

HOURS

Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

Sunday 12pm-5pm

 

About JASON SHO GREEN (New York, b. Japan): 

Seamlessly blending a hybrid education which includes undergraduate studies in autonomous robotics and digital embedded systems at the University of Washington and a MFA degree in painting from the New York Academy of Art, JASON SHO GREEN’s work in Reveries evolved from drawings of a glorious city after ruin. He delves into a new world from the leftovers of human behavior, imagining what can be done with what is left behind. His robotic, electricity-powered installation explores an ecosystem built from found objects, spare motors, and wires that are constantly in flux.

Please click HERE to view video footage of robotic installations by JASON SHO GREEN.

 

 

About VICTORIA SHAHEEN (Detroit, b. USA):

A graduate of the Corcoran College of Art and the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art, VICTORIA SHAHEEN integrates iconic architecture, pop culture icons, outdated kitsch, and historical decorative arts in her memorable ceramic works.  Reveries marks VICTORIA SHAHEEN’s third DC exhibition including her successful debut of “St. Rosie Needs Arms” at NEXT at the Corcoran in 2011 and 2D/3D at Morton Fine Art in 2012.  This body of work will include stacked slip cast ceramics created from selected found objects from thrift stores, gifts and street debris.

About Morton Fine Art:

Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services.

The Washington Post: Critical Review of ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY’s “Red Handed”

The Washington Post, Sunday June, 30, 2013, p. E2

Humanity’s collective guilt: A hellish experience

by Mark Jenkins

‘Red Handed’ : Rosemary Feit Covey’s pictures, looser and messier than her usual woodblock prints, are reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s work or Goya’s Black Paintings.

In Celtic heraldry, the red hand represents a bloody, hard-won heritage. For Rosemary Feit Covey, whose “Red Handed” is on display at Morton Fine Art, the image has a different meaning: guilt. Her “installation experience” of mixed-media paintings and drawings catches the world red-handed, and the outcome looks like Hell.

That is, Covey’s suite recalls Hieronymus Bosch’s images of teeming, tormented humanity, as well as Francisco Goya’s despairing Black Paintings. Hundreds of red-handed, black-on-white androgynous figures line the walls, and even writhe underfoot. The South Africa-born, Washington-based artist has transferred some of her paintings to vinyl mats and arrayed them, overlapping variously, on the floor. She stopped short of the ceiling, but the experience of entering the gallery is immersive nonetheless.

Covey is known for her detailed wood block prints, a few of which are on display around the edges of this show. Her “Red Handed” pictures are looser, messier and more impulsive; precisely etched lines yield to expressionist strokes and spatters, sometimes atop collaged layers. Although gray, blue and brown tint some of the images, the emphasis on black and red suggests the artist’s background in simple, graphically direct printmaking. Long horizontal murals claim the room’s three walls, and on two of them the compositions are interrupted by other paintings, most of them miniatures. If Covey doesn’t document all nine circles of Dante’s Hell, she does offer multiple levels.

As a theme, guilt is wide-ranging, but these thronging pictures don’t suggest individual responsibility and solitary regret. The fault is clearly collective, widely known and unconcealable. Perhaps that’s why Covey was inspired to present these paintings as an installation. Everyone has done wrong at some point, so all those singular faults add up to mass culpability. To enter “Red Handed” is to be implicated.

Rosemary Feit Covey: Red Handed

On view through July 5 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW; 202-628-2787; http://www.mortonfineart.com

 

We Love Arts: Rosemary Feit Covey’s Red Handed

By Jenn Larsen , 26 Jun 2013

Sometimes we experience works of art that embody both beauty and horror. The old word for this, now sadly devalued, was “awesome.” I hope artist Rosemary Feit Covey will forgive me for using that word to describe her current complete gallery installation, Red Handed. It is simply awesome.

Recently I visited Morton Fine Art to watch as Covey installed the work under the gentle eye of curator Amy Morton, spreading vinyl pieces across the floor. Even in that unfinished state before opening, it had undeniable power. Swirling vortexes of bald, nude figures, mouths open and arms red to the fingertips, soon covered the floor. I stepped gingerly over their faces, having no other option but to participate in their torture. It’s impossible to look away from the unsettling mass of bodies under your feet. It feels disrespectful. Jarring.

Guilty.

There’s no rest for your eyes on the walls either, which are also covered in variants of the twisting, stumbling figures. It’s difficult not to continually look down and dive into the pit. The vinyl floor pieces began as drawings, then printed both commercially and by hand, and finally overlaid in places with paint. Some prints were also made into wall paintings or just printed on basic paper. Covey got “housemaid’s knees” working on them (an old Victorian term that struck me as a cheeky metaphor for this quietly contained artist serving to bring these figures to life).

“Red Handed.” Art installation by Rosemary Feit Covey at Morton Fine Art. Image: MFA.

It’s an intensely visceral piece. Covey hopes it compels strangers visiting the gallery to engage with each other, to open up about their own distinct reactions. Though the work has its genesis in ideas of guilt, both individual and collective, viewers (or rather, participants) are encouraged to let their own interpretations germinate. Suicide, depression, isolation amongst the many, illness, the Holocaust, even zombies…whatever the dialogue that ensues, it has value to the artist.

“Red Handed.” Art installation by Rosemary Feit Covey at Morton Fine Art. Photo credit: Sophia Guerci.

Emotional reactions ran the gamut at last Friday’s opening (the crowd also went through “40+ bottles of wine,” Morton noted, and you may feel the need for a cocktail after visiting!) and will no doubt continue. The installation is on view now through July 5, and I encourage you to immerse yourself in the beautiful horror, facing the abyss both internal and external. Covey’s work is well worth the discomfort.

Rosemary Feit Covey’s Red Handed, now through July 5 at Morton Fine Art, located at 1781 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009. Gallery hours: 11am-6pm Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5pm Sunday. For more information call 202-628-2787.

To view the full online version please visit: http://www.welovedc.com

______________________________________

As one of the founding editors of We Love DC, Jenn Larsen’s passions are theater and cocktails. After two decades in the city, she’s loved every quirky, mundane, elegant, rude minute of her DC life. A proud advocate for DC’s talented drinks scene, she’s judged the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI contest, the DC Rickey Month contest, the Jefferson Hotel’s Quill Cocktail competition, and is a founding member of LUPEC DC. A graduate of Catholic University’s drama program, she toured the country as a member of National Players, and has been both an actor and a costume designer before jumping the aisle to theater criticism. Send your suggestions to jenn (at) welovedc (dot) com and follow her on Twitter.

“Red Handed” Gallery Installation by ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY

 

RED HANDED

A gallery installation experience by ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY

 

June 21st, 2013 – July 5th, 2013

 

EXHIBITION LOCATION

Morton Fine Art (MFA)

1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts)

Washington, DC 20009

 

HOURS

Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

Sunday 12pm-5pm

 

OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, June 21st from 6pm-8pm

The artist will be in attendance.

_________________________________

About Red Handed:  

Rosemary Feit Covey’s Red Handed is a complete gallery installation project which combines drawings printed on both hand and commercial printers.  The prints are then made into paintings, or left rough on cheap paper.  Covey’s exploration in media and method has evolved and is comprised of wall-wrapped images and an all-encompassing floor piece – the major part of the installation – which forces the viewer to walk on the art.  The image is meant to have no beginning and no end.

Red Handed began as a set of drawings and printed columns during Covey’s 2012 residency at Spiro Arts in Utah. The initial drawing appeared as a stream of conscience image. It was at first unclear why red hands kept appearing on her running figures, Covey feels it is connected to guilt.

Inspiration for Red Handed:

Referencing Dore, Modigliani and Picasso’s Guernica – Red Handed raises issue of collective versus personal guilt.

“Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of the culprit, and the very magnitude of the crime the best excuse for doing nothing.”

 -Hannah Arendt

“For all survivors of suicide the question of guilt opens a maw that fills and envelopes adding to the pain, shock and sorrow. A murder has been committed where the murderer can not be blamed. The past becomes the framework for constant reexamination.  I had to ask myself – why did this image spring whole from my imagination?  I had to wait and allow my thoughts to unearth the past.  Guilt is the most personal of emotions and universal only when we take it on ourselves before we look at the rest.” -Rosemary Feit Covey

 

About ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY:

Rosemary Feit Covey was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a career spanning three decades she has exhibited internationally and received countless awards. Covey’s work is in numerous national and international museum and library collections.

Select collections include the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the New York Public Library Collection of Prints and Drawings; the Papyrus Institute, Cairo, Egypt; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; The National Museum of American History; Georgetown University Library Print Collection; Harvard University Library; and Princeton University Library.

Georgetown University Library currently houses 512 of her wood engravings in their permanent collection. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at the Evergreen Museum at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 2014.

Red Handed marks Covey’s third annual exhibition at Morton Fine Art.