May 21 – June 26, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, May 21st, 6 - 9 PM

Lisa Stefanelli: Sassyfras Paintings
Images

Press Release

Lisa Stefanelli’s paintings are primarily known for their flawlessly painted images in rich red or blue tones. Some recall complex symmetrical patterns one associates with illuminated manuscripts, hot-rod emblems and lacework while others recall liquid spills and the way drops of ink swirl and fold in a glass of clear water.

For this show, Ms. Stefanelli develops the work exploring two new territories. Imagery in the past that has been ostensibly abstract pattern, now hints at a more specific figural presence, and she has added an elongated format and denser repetitions of gesture that combine to become more metaphorical than matter-of fact.

The images continue to have the magic of behaving like a cloud that shape-shifts as you watch, yet the concentration of line nudges interpretation towards something more structured and tangible, something in the world, yet something so elusive that you just can’t quite name.

The preceding excerpt is from the foreword to the “Sassyfras Paintings" catalogue, which accompanies the exhibition and includes an interview with Lisa Stefanelli by artist and writer Jennifer Riley.

Lisa Stefanelli received her degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. She has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and is in the collections of The Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, MA; The Mondstudio Collection, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland and numerous corporate and private collections worldwide.

The artist lives and works in New York City and Easton, Pennsylvania. This is her first solo exhibition at Heskin Contemporary.