FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sarah Friedland
212.714.0044
March 12, 2007

GUDRUN MERTES-FRADY OPENS SHOW OF NEW PAINTINGS
Reeves Contemporary opens an exhibition of new paintings by Gudrun Mertes-Frady on April 5th, with an artist’s reception from 6-8 p.m. The show will run through May 12th, 2007.

Mertes-Frady has been following the tradition of abstract modernism for several decades, reinventing her approach to her paintings and reinvigorating the dialogue around this genre. And indeed it is a dialogue: Mertes-Frady embarks on each canvas with an intention that often ultimately bends to the will of the painting itself. Through the process of creation, the painting assumes an identity that insists on a particular avenue of exploration and Mertes-Frady is intuitive enough and adept enough to follow.

This is perhaps the single reason why her work continues to change and evolve: in the series 2004 to 2005, the geometric grids of New York City provided the philosophical and visual platform for works that incorporated angular, hard-edged lines over a soft, layered underpainting. In the short period of time since, the lines have become syncopated rhythms that confer a more celestial or tidal momentum; the underpainting has become even more diffuse, deep and tonal. Breaking from the rigors of a grid template, we see a painter who is at play in a field of new marks, with beautiful results.

Despite the free-floating, top layers of excited, kinetic lines, which are manifested in calculated metallic angular bands; the viewer nonetheless experiences the maturity of a practiced painter who does not abandon all rules. We always know where we are in the seductively defined realms of each painting, even though we may not know how to define it. Their jewel-like quality—due in great part to her painstaking, elaborate layering —catches the light and softly reflects it back, with the implicit invitation to suspend definition and enter in.

In the catalog that accompanies the exhibition, Mario Naves wrote: “Keenly attuned to a profoundly personal methodology, she uncovers unexpected facets, quirks, and complications within it. The paintings encapsulate an ongoing evolution that, like life itself, is fraught with uncertainty and defined by possibility. Mertes-Frady captures that process without relinquishing its drive points not only to painterly virtuosity but an art of deep-seated pleasure.”

Work by Mertes-Frady is included in the collections of The Rockefeller University, New York, NY; The Busch Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, among other international and national institutions.

To see the online gallery, visit reevescontemporary.com. For more information or to order a catalog, please contact the gallery at 212-714-0044. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 5:30 p.m. A catalog for this exhibition is available.


Gudrun Mertes-Frady May 5th - June 4th
Artist’s Reception
May 5th 6:00 – 8:00 pm
For immediate release Contact: Cynthia Reeves
GUDRUN MERTES FRADY OPENS SHOW OF NEW YORK PAINTINGS

Reeves Contemporary opens an exhibition of new paintings by Gudrun Mertes Frady, which begins with an artist’s reception on May 5th between 6-8 p.m. The show runs through June 4th.

The series of oil paintings celebrates New York and its multifold geometries. The layered spaces that are inferred through pared down lines and gentle extrapolations of form are formal and elegant. In Frady’s vernacular, New York is a space marked by softened grids made sensual through her exquisite surfaces: lush layers of paint with hints of under-painting adding dimension and depth.

In the spirit of Mondrian’s Chrysanthemum series, Frady revisits the vistas of New York as seen from her Brooklyn studio over and over: in various lights, the city is soft and misty, with a palette reminiscent of the Edo period in Japan. One of the show’s signature paintings is indeed entitled “Chrysanthemum” and it demonstrates all the deconstructive complexities Frady intends; yet it is still imbued with the hushed quiet of a city on the brink of a winter dawn.

In other paintings, brash and bold juxtapositions of color speak of the kinetic energy of the city’s streets and the dizzying vertigo of adjacent buildings. In each, the attention paid to the laying out of the grid-like patterning, the color field, and the subtle bleeding of color from the under layers are precisely thought through. Mario Naves of the New York Observer wrote of recent work: “The…best canvases concentrate on the city: its skyline, its light, the abrupt juxtapositions that define it and that stately calm that brings you up short.” He continued, “Frady is no longer a painter to whom one politely pays attention: she’s become an artist to get excited about.” This exhibition is the next step in an evolution of thought played out in carefully wrought canvases, and collectively prove out this statement.

For more information, contact Reeves Contemporary at 212 714 0044. The gallery is located at 535 W. 24th Street, 2nd floor, New York City