MARGARETHE AANESTAD (NORWAY)
Margarethe Aanestad’s unsteady aesthetic recalls the Japanese principle of wabi sabi. Her freehand, improvisational work has a lightness and fragility borne of its loose imperfection. The quiet intensity of her minimal geometric abstractions composed of fragments and layers give her drawings a sculptural weight. Their simplicity belies a careful orchestration of density and balance, symbol and form. She says she works in an abstract language.
JULIA MANGOLD (GERMANY)
Julia Mangold creates smooth works on paper that are clear, spare, and austere. Her opaque layers slowly build intensity. Reminiscent of Wolfgang Laib’s dripped beeswax sculptures and Robert Ryman’s pale squares, her handmade geometries feel uncomplicated and quiet. They seem to form their own simple metaphysics.
MARY SIMPSON (UNITED STATES)
Mary Simpson finds influence in Paul Klee’s watercolors and Alexander Rodchenko’s costume and theater set designs. Her dreamlike images elude reason. She describes them as strange and playful.
There is a ghostly quality to her work, the sense of an afterimage, something vanished, leaving only a shimmering trace. Though absent to us, it was present to her in the moment of creation. Describing this instant she says, “You reach for the image, and it’s there for you.”