Anita Rogers Gallery is thrilled to announce its 2018 Winter Group Exhibition, a collection of work by three artists new to the gallery: Jan Cunningham, Gloria Ortiz-Hernández and Robert Szot. The exhibition will be on view January 3 – February 3, 2018 at the gallery’s new location at 15 Greene Street, Ground Floor in SoHo, New York. There will be an opening reception on Wednesday, January 3, 6-8pm.  

JAN CUNNINGHAM   

Cunningham was born in Lufkin, Texas in 1956. She received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1979, and her MFA in Painting from the Yale University School of Art in 1985. On the work in this exhibition, Cunningham states:    The Arabesque Paintings of 2016 and 2017 evolved in response to the Arabesque Drawings of 2015 – 2016. The paintings invite the lines of the circle and the ellipse to join with a language of painting that celebrates the materiality of color and light, the juxtaposition of the anticipated with the unexpected, and the affirmation of depth by close attention to process.    Over many years, the paintings have focused on the most elemental aspects of the picture plane. On a square canvas, the dialogue between and among the dimensions of the picture plane -divided into thirds and fourths – has offered a productive way to study the mysteries of such a simple space. Recently, I have expanded these meditations to include the golden section rectangle, within the square and beyond it. These simple meditations I call Considerations.   Looking at the paintings becomes a matter of reseeing, of reviewing: a corner of a room in shadow; light coming in through a window; a pattern of trees silhouetted in the first light of day; the moon’s light in the surface of a lake; wonder at what might be beneath that surface. It is an experience of folding open, folding closed. Breathing in, breathing out. Resting in the depths, looking up toward the surface, through the surface of the painting.

GLORIA ORTIZ-HERNÁNDEZ  

Colombian artist Gloria Ortiz-Hernández's drawings and sculptures have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her work is in the permanent collections of a number of institutions including
The Museum of Modern Art (NY), The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University (MA),
Art Museums Cambridge (MA), The Morgan Library (NY), The Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center (TX), and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA).
Her work is also in private collections throughout the United States and in Basel, Switzerland, Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Bogota, Colombia. She currently has a drawing (Plate/Shift #10) on view at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.   

TUCK TRIPTYCH   

Three drawings of folded paper.   

Here the artist puts aside the functions the paper is normally assigned (to wrap, to cover, to fold, etc.) and, paying meticulous attention to light and form, captures a reality unencumbered by usefulness.   

OVERLAP #2   

Two slabs, one light, the other dark.   

The light slab stands erect; the dark slab tilts and, along along a blue edge, bends toward the light.   

Three points are accented by a diffusion that softens and animates the rigor of the forms.   

The center is accentuated by a white wedge against the blue. This addition sits comfortably and securely between the two slabs.    

The drawing was not planned ahead of time. Rather, it was gradually defined through a process of extraction of the essential meaning until a harmonious image was finally complete.                

ROBERT SZOT   

This dedication to mark making for its own sake and his ability to play with large monochrome colour fields atop denser and more intricate bold hues give birth to a mysterious image that creates space for us to wallow in, reminds us that there is more to the world than rational materialism, that there is room for the unknown, the inexplicable, the abstract and dynamic glory of colour and form. - Moray Mair   

Szot (b. 1976) has exhibited his work in many galleries across the United States from New York to Los Angeles and Texas. Szot's paintings have been exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery in London and, in 2014, the artist was invited to participate in the Whitney Museum Art Party. His work is in public collections, including Credit Suisse, and numerous private collections, such as Beth DeWoody and the Bass Family. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.