Sara Eichner, Recent Paintings

Recent Paintings, January 8 - February 7, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 8, 5-7PM
 
Sears Peyton gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Sara Eichner.
 
Eichner explores space and architecture in oil painting, playing with how three-dimensional space renders on two-dimensional surfaces. She fills canvases with patterns and arranges colors to create an optical unease that reflects a struggle of creating space while interacting with the flatness of each painting.
 
More from the artist about her binary process, in her own words:
 
What is the problem you set up to solve in each new painting?
I work out ideas on the computer. I choose a basic unit or grid and apply perspective to it to create the illusion of space. Then on linen or paper, I use that grid or unit and turn it in on itself--I flip it, reverse it, overlay it on top of the original grid--in order to cancel out the illusion, or, if not cancel out, to create a new space. The problem of each painting leads me to new color interactions, patterns, space, and specifics that I can't invent without this affectation, without setting up this set of rules and systems. I like to play optical games with perspective because I grapple with the complexities of seeing. I like to think about a state where point of view cannot be fixed.
 
Could you say something about your hand work?
I hand-paint my lines. I don't use a computer for this or a ruler edge or a taped edge. I love the hand-eye process. I like using an element of drawing in painting. It's very meditative. It's very absorbing. There's definitely a time warp as I lose myself in the accumulation of small marks and shapes and their subtle variations.
 
Sara Eichner is a graduate of Kenyon College (BA) and Syracuse University (MFA) who has exhibited with galleries and institutions across the United States. She has received many awards and fellowships, including a residency fellowship at the Millay Colony, an artist's fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a residency at the Lower East Side Print Shop, and the Artists in the Marketplace award from the Bronx Museum of Art. Public collections where her work is held include Wellington Management (New York); Fidelity Investment Company (Boston); Credit Suisse (New York); and the U.S. Department of State (Washington, D.C.). Eichner's work has been the subject of articles in
Art Matters, the New Haven Register, New American Paintings, Metropolis, ID, Wallpaper, Triangulation, and Printeresting, among other print and digital publications. Originally from Vermont, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.