Morton Fine Art presents *a pop-up project: Perspectives: Global Abstraction

Perspectives presents a sweeping view of the possibilities of nature-based abstraction. Featuring work by Natalie Cheung, Hannelie Coetzee, Rosemary Feit Covey, Maya Freelon, Hiromitsu Kuroo, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Eto Otitigbe, Andrei Petrov and Jenny Wu, the exhibition brings together a group of artistic voices from around the world that utilize unique technical processes to engage with and represent their specific view of the natural and built environment.

Freed from the limitations of traditional representation, the artists in Perspectives are able to communicate elements from nature directly as they experience them. Patches of blue and gold coalesce to suggest sunlight, wind, clouds or snow in Andrei Petrov’s expressionist oil paintings; the avoidance of specific reference to any particular place leaves room for us to insert ourselves in the paintings, remembering the sunsets and vistas from our own cache of memories. Memory and tradition are also blended in Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann’s painted and collaged works on paper, as she crafts balanced hybrid compositions built from discrete botanical elements that reference Eastern and Western traditions. Rosemary Feit Covey likewise employs woodcut and collage, densely layering forms that simultaneously conceal and reveal, inviting the viewer to look closer to decipher the meaning of the work as it relates to them personally. 

Eschewing linear perspective and traditional visual methods used to depict space, artists like Natalie Cheung and Eto Otitigbe present views of the world that we are not used to seeing. Cheung utilizes cyanotype, an experimental photography process, to create large scale works on paper that resemble topographical maps or eroded landscapes. Otitigbe dyes and etches lines into aluminum plates that seem nonrepresentational at first, but upon extended looking reveal themselves to be blueprints for larger sculptural works. Beyond the built environment suggested by Otitigbe, Maya Freelon’s tissue paper and ink on mylar works resemble celestial bodies, evoking an otherworldly space of eclipse and orbit. Whether we are looking down at swaths of land from the sky, glancing up at architectural forms receding away from us, or craning our necks to catch a glimpse of the heavenly, each work can serve as a portal to see the world anew - a chance to travel with only our imaginations. 

By pushing the boundaries of medium, innovative artistic processes can open our eyes to new possibilities, and in turn new ways of inhabiting space and relating to each other. Jenny Wu’s process of layering latex paint, cutting it into pieces and reassembling them into geometric compositions defies the standard boundaries between painting and sculpture, and her titles are often witty, challenging, and confrontational, asking the viewer to rethink their assumptions. Similarly, Hiromitsu Kuroo’s process is much more complex than it may seem at first glance, as canvas is delicately bleached, stained, and folded with a Japanese sensibility for the life of material things. Hannelie Coetzee’s ink drawings on ledger paper work together to form an immersive skulk of foxes, imploring us to literally look at the bigger picture and consider how the individual relates to the collective. While each fox stands on its own, it is also an indispensable part of the whole; so too is each voice in Perspectives, as each artist articulates a unique outlook on the natural environment from their individual positions around the globe.