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Quintenz & Company Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening of its first-ever two-person exhibition, featuring paintings by Robert Kelly and sculptures and cast-paper prints by Mel Kendrick. The exhibition will consist of eleven collage and mixed media paintings, ranging in size from 10 x 7¾ inches to 80 x 64 inches, by Robert Kelly. Kendrick’s portion will include four sculptures in cast plaster (12¼ x 4¼ x 5 inches), two in cedar wood (33¾ x 7¼ x 7¼ inches), and five cast paper prints (42 x 35 inches).
Robert Kelly creates layered, formal, abstract geometric compositions in strong, solid colors. The works are impeccably surfaced, painted over collages of vintage European film posters, weather charts, or old correspondence. The papers are graphically bold, and Kelly often reverses the sheet to further abstract the typeface. These collaged elements subtly show through the over-painted, bone-hued ground of the compositions.
Mel Kendrick’s six sculptures for this exhibition continue the artist’s investigation of geometric abstraction. The works are straightforward, revealing their process and materials. For the works in wood, Kendrick slices cores out of blocks and then re-assembles the cutout parts into a new composition, with the saw-cut marks and glue seams showing. The pieces look deceptively simple yet are conceptually rigorous, like challenging puzzles. The cast plaster works were first carved with a hot wire in hard foam, then molds were made, and the plaster cast. The pieces are part of a body of work titled “Markers,” which was developed for an installation of monumental cast concrete works installed in New York City’s Madison Square Park in 2009.
Kendrick’s cast paper prints are, by contrast, as biomorphic as his sculptures are geometric. They have a swarming, microscopic energy like protozoa. The artist creates them by carving and constructing bas reliefs in wood, then makes a rubber mold of the wood composition, including seams and saw marks. For the final step, he casts thick, wet paper pulp in the mold.
Robert Kelly was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He studied painting at Harvard and lives and works in New York City. His works are in the permanent collections of numerous art museums.
Mel Kendrick was born in Boston. He lives and works in New York City. His works are in the permanent collections of numerous art museums in the U.S. and abroad.
www.quintenzgallery.com
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