The Flinn Gallery is pleased to present Alignments, an exploration of new abstract work by artists Meghan Brady, Ben Godward, and Erika Ranee, and curated by Tracy McKenna.
These three dynamic artists triangulate around shapes and strata in their work, embrace supercharged color, and overlap in the physicality of their mark making. An opening reception will be held December 16, from 6:00pm-8:00pm.
Erika Ranee seeks to “create new, different ways of mark making” in a process which is both additive and subtractive. She utilizes the entirety of her studio space, working first on the floor to layer pours of paint and water from cleaning her brushes, then builds up the surface with paper recycled from prior studio uses. Spray paint tests form ghostly starts for later lines; objects are attached, painted over, and then removed leaving imprints and negative spaces; poured shellac preserves layers and the history of making. Ranee states “I like to be active and not slow things down in the beginning, before becoming meticulous at the end.” Canvases are rotated repeatedly, often finding their final finished orientation late in the process, as highly detailed, small brush work fills the surface.
Meghan Brady, a member of the Greenwich High School class of 1994, was a Greenwich Arts Society Scholarship awardee and lives & paints in mid-coast Maine.
Her web site is https://www.meghanbrady.com/. Brady has created a new expansive paper painting, Working the Bees Back to the Hive. Over 20 feet long, Brady’s work hovers between abstraction and representation with references to butterfly flight, changing relationships, and centering energy.
Painted in two opposing color families with broad gestures, Brady said, “I want my paintings to be approachable and friendly, but mysterious things; things you want to look at but not necessarily understand right away. A painting that shows how it was made is an ingredient that feels right to me. It’s a way to draw the viewer in.”
Ben Godward navigates a path between material-based feminist sculpture and an ongoing exploration of simple tools. For Alignments, his wedge series is joined by funnels. Both forms are transporters of energy and matter, here rendered in pigmented urethane resin.
Supercharged color is poured to create stratified layers within an exterior form. The funnels are closed, rendering them unusable; the elongated wedges feature scale and line weight shifts, coming to dagger-like ends. “The uneven surface of these works, with residues of mark making, is intentional and reflects a practice based on patience interchanged with pure chaos,” Godward said.
“The artists in Alignments overlap in their physicality of making, highly articulated material vocabularies, and place a particular emphasis on color and strata in their work,” said the show’s curator, Tracy McKenna. “The planning for Alignments began over two years ago, with the intention of bringing Greenwich-native Meghan Brady’s paintings home from Maine where she now lives, and showing them in conversation with new art peers. Chosen for their visual intersections, both Erika Ranee and Ben Godward, like Brady, serve as points of connection, catalyzing opportunities for their own New York City art communities over the years.”
The Flinn Gallery, sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library, is located on the second floor of the Library’s main branch at 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich CT. Artwork is for sale with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Library’s public programming. The gallery is open daily Monday to Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm, Thursday until 8:00pm, and Sunday 1:00-5:00pm.
For more information, please call the gallery: 203.622.7947 www.flinngallery.com