PRESS RELEASE
Margaret Thatcher Projects is pleased to present The World Develops Blank Spots, a group exhibition featuring Omar Chacon, Cheonae Kim, Cyrilla Mozenter, and Esther Podemski. Commencing with a reception on Thursday, November 10, from 6 to 8 pm, the exhibition continues through Saturday, December 22, 2022.
The World Develops Blank Spots includes four materially diverse artists using the language of abstraction to convey forms of interconnectivity. The artists draw inspiration from a range of sources: literature, archival materials, documentary film, and the architecture of community. Each artist respectively uses historical references to understand and apply order to the chaos of our current world.
Cheonae Kim's multimedia drawings are from a body of work made in response to E.J. Bellocq's early 20th century photographs of women who worked in Storyville, the New Orleans former red-light district. Each of Kim's ovals emulate the framing of Bellocq's portrait photography, though turned on their side. Kim fills the darkness of the painted oval with light colored pencil drawings, creating floral, portal-like forms.
Cyrilla Mozenter transforms the written word through dimensional abstraction. A multi-disciplinary artist, she uses writing, the transplantation of cutout letters, as well as letter-derived, pictogram-like shapes in her works on paper and industrial felt. The titles and words in the work often come from Gertrude Stein’s writing, creating works that are playful and absurd.
Esther Podemski is an artist and documentarian. She produced and directed House of the World, a film about the aftermath of the Holocaust, shot in Poland and screened globally. Podemski's mixed media works are rooted in the filmmaking process, using a print of the color correction screen of a Priest's cassock as the base for her abstract works on paper.
Omar Chacon's paintings are constructed in layers from small, colorful paint elements affixed to paper. Influenced by his Colombian heritage and experiences living in the U.S., Chacon examines the connections between individuals within large, diverse communities. He conveys this sense of vital interrelation in his paintings through compositional strategies, color placement, and chance associations.
Margaret Thatcher Projects is located at 539 West 23rd Street, ground floor (between 10th and 11th Avenues). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, and by appointment. For further information contact the gallery at: info@thatcherprojects.com or 212-675-0222.