GR Gallery is proud to present “Interferences: Contemporary Op and Kinetic Art”, a group show featuring several generations of artists whose works investigate & advance the discourse around pattern, optical & perceptual abstract painting. The exhibition will feature recent works by four innovative artists from Europe and America, including Felipe Pantone, Gilbert Hsiao, Nadia Costantini, and Sandi Renko.
Opening reception: Thursday February 23, 6:00pm – 9:00pm (Exhibition Dates: Feb 23–April 16, 2017) Members of the press can contact GR gallery in advance to schedule a private viewing and/or an interview with the artists.
GR Gallery, 255 Bowery (btw Houston & Stanton) New York, NY 10002
As an art movement in the United States, Op-Art (a branch of Kinetic Art) rose quickly in the early 1960s, peaked with “The Responsive Eye” exhibition at MOMA in 1965, and then faded within three years. Despite this, Op-Art has had a long afterlife and an outsized influence on visual art, architecture & design. In Europe and South America, it emerged in the early 1950s, and has enjoyed an uninterrupted, if at times understated life since that time. On both sides of the ocean, it has had a long and outsized influence on visual art, architecture & design. In the last few years, exhibitions featuring Op-Art have been appearing in museums & galleries with increasing frequency.
Its ability to have a successful afterlife is due to its ability to produce interference between the physical presence of its surface and the illusory effects its patterns create. The ‘Interference’ art form of Op-Art is an effect of synergy between the alignment of the shape & graphic that merges and affects both. Since 2013, the art world has witnessed a deluge of Op-Art and Kinetic-Art centered exhibitions by major international museums and galleries. The markets took notice: from 2000 to 2016 kinetic art prices at international auctions went up by 128% due to demand. In industrial & graphic design, in fashion, architecture, in décor objects and in a myriad of other places, Op-Art is back!
The “Interferences” exhibition investigates Op-Art through the artistic output of four American & European artists and their mastery of the line and the exploration of pure color and form to create canvases of intense vibrancy and life out of simple geometric shapes. The exhibition’s primary compositional units are focused on line interference, geometrical shapes, reversible perspective and chromatic vibration.
The 25 works on view derive their power from the way in which the artists are able to create dynamic variations by altering the width, color & direction of their stripes and shapes, often with infinitesimal slightness, to create arrangements that pulsate with a serene rhythm as reflected in Hsiao’s work, or frantic energy as in Pantone’s work.
Felipe Pantone (Argentina)’s work is at the cutting edge of street art. Straddling conventional graffiti, typography and abstraction, his work fuses bold elements of graphic design with highly evolved geometric shapes.
Gilbert Hsiao (U.S.) has been exploring the mechanics of visual perception since the 1980s. The viewer perceives oscillation through the illusion of a continuous wave produced by the physiological experience of space and movement. Meticulously layered stripes in tightly woven structures create a musical rhythm and repose.
Sandi Renko (1949, Italy) is known for his contributions to industrial design, optical and kinetic art (Arte Programmata). By using undulated cardboard surfaces painted with acrylic colors, Renko creates tridimensional geometric structures that can be read from several angles, giving the impression of movement.
Nadia Costantini (1944, Italy) Nadia Costantini’s works as a painter and a sculptor is focused on the dialogue between negative & positive space to create the illusion of movement & depth. In her paintings, colorful geometric & modulated striped structures emerge from backgrounds of pure black thus emphasizing the painter’s choice of vivid, vibrant colors.
GR gallery: Founded in the mid-seventies by Italian art critic Giovanni Granzotto in Sacile, Italy, Studio d’Arte GR has been specializing in Kinetic, Op and Programmed Art; its US branch, GR gallery, continues its mission in North America.
Contact/ Press enquiries: Eva Zanardi at GR gallery ezanardi@gr-gallery.com
Image: Felipe Pantone, “Optichromie 62“, 2016, enamel on wood panel, 47.24X47.24 in.
Visitor Information: Tue- Sat 12:00pm – 7:00pm
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