Reconfigure
September 1 – October 1, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, September 1, 6:00-9:00 pm
Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to present Reconfigure, an exhibition of Boston-based artists Ariel Basson Freiberg and Lavaughan Jenkins. Both artists distort the human form as a way to investigate both their own experiences and identities, and the physical act of painting. Their thick, gestural application of paint alters the figure in a way that invites the viewer to examine closer. Freiberg’s brushstrokes guide the eye playfully over her figures, while Jenkins’ three-dimensional paintings encourage the viewer to observe his work from every angle. The artist’s likeness is subtly alluded to in both of their work. Their work opens conversations about identity, memory, and sexuality with an innovative use of color and medium.
Ariel Basson Freiberg’s paintings are intense, acidic statements about female sexuality that offer the viewer temptation and denial in a single image. Freiberg’s women emerge from a saturated background in undeniably erotic poses, but with all of the key information concealed with thick smears of paint: faces, genitals, anything that might expose her subjects. She embraces the inherent quality of paint as a sensual medium—described with words like silken, smooth, thick, creamy—and uses it as a means of suggestion without indulgence.
Lavaughan Jenkins’ paintings push the boundaries of medium by using oil paint to make three dimensional work—what he refers to as “3D Paintings”. Jenkins begins each piece with a skeleton of wire and molding paste, and then applies four or five dense coats of oil paint to flesh them out. He employs traditional methods to build layer after layer of vibrant brushstrokes until his paintings begin to imitate sculpture. The work takes emphasis away from form and focuses on light and color, mapping a journey for the eye across the surface.
Ariel Basson Freiberg, born in Texas of Iraqi/Israeli background, has an MFA in painting from Boston University and a BA from Smith College. She has had multiple solo exhibitions and including exhibitions at Miller Yezerski Gallery, Dartmouth College, Tufts Art Gallery, Danforth Museum, Montserrat College of Art and the Art Center of Macedonia. Her work is reviewed in ARTnews, The Boston Globe, Big Red and Shiny, and featured in Modern Painters for the Tenot Foundation Bursary for the residency, Camac in France. She received a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship in 2015. This year, her performance and installation, love like salt, was featured at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and her painting, "Amnesia" will be the cover of Definitions of Feminine Post Conflict Spaces.
Lavaughan Jenkins was born in Florida, and lives and works in Boston. He has a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and has participated in the Yale University Norfolk Residency Program. He was the recipient of the Blanche E. Coleman Award in 2015, and the Rob Moore Grant in 2002. He has exhibited in galleries internationally, most recently at the Beaver Country Day School in Newton, MA, MassArt Galleries in Boston, MA, 666 Artspace in Beijing, China, Oasis Gallery in Beijing, China, and Judi Rotenberg Gallery in Boston, MA.
