HT Contemporary's booth will feature a selection of works by Knox Martin, Leah Guadagnoli and André Hemer, artists who are exploring the concept of sculptural painting. Martin has been creating works in which the female body is broken apart into geometric forms and reassembled into collaged-based paintings since the 1960s. Hard-edged alternatives to De Kooning's women, Martin's angular forms and layered surfaces push forward into the viewer's space. Guadagnoli's shaped canvases further blur traditional boundaries between painting, sculpture, and collage. Finding inspiration in the garden outside her studio as well as Swahili architecture, her constructions pair pastel colors and the illusion of plush surfaces with powerful, organic forms. Yonic imagery diverts attention away from the presence of phallic forms, playing upon entrenched stereotypes, and highlighting masculine-feminine dichotomies, which are evident in Martin's works as well. Hemer's surfaces also create illusions, in this case by playing with the tension between scanned images of paint and the physical material. Combining digital and traditional processes, the artist sculpts images out of paint, which he scans on a flatbed scanner. The scans are printed on canvas and function as an under layer onto which paint is applied and the original sculpted paint is attached, creating a dialogue between material and image. All three artists give their surfaces a textural quality that challenges ingrained expectations of flawlessness.

Hollis Taggart Contemporary will be exhibiting as HT Contemporary at UNTITLED. For more information on the gallery's booth presentation please contact us at 212.628.4000 or [email protected]