Drawing On Memory: Curated by Nancy Cohen by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

DRAWING ON MEMORY

ALEXANDRAATHANASSIADES ALEXANDRAATHANASSIADES

MARGIENEUHAUS MARGIENEUHAUS

DEBRAPRIESTLY DEBRAPRIESTLY

JJAMESESBER AMESESBER

Onthecover: "SleeperII”byJamesEsber

DrawingOnMemory March28throughMay4,2024 529W20thStreet6W NewYork,NewYork AlexandraAthanassiades MargieNeuhaus DebraPriestly JamesEsber CuratedbyNancyCohen

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to present, “Drawing on Memory,curatedbyNancyCohenandfeaturingworksby Alexandra Athanassiades,JamesEsber,MargieNeuhaus,andDebraPriestly.

The works in this exhibition are united by the subtle ways that memory played a role in the artists’ development of the conceptual underpinnings. Each artist has an expansive practice where drawing isanessentialelement,allowingtheirideastotravelacrossmedia.Its importanceisapparentineachone’slargerbodyofwork.

AlexandraAthanassiades

Born and living in Athens, Greece, Alexandra Athanassiades’s work draws on the history of ancient Greek sculpture. The horse as a character and form has been present in her work for 40 years, standing in for her personal family history while simultaneously referencingherinteriorityandindependence.Thetendernessofher bronze sculptures evidences the found materials of their original structuresandbeliesthesolidityofthematerial.Morerecently,she has been responding to the 20 th century Greek poet C.P. Cavafy, whose work has been said to “hold the historical and erotic in a single embrace.” Athanassiasdes’s drawings on top of printed book pagesandinstallationscouldbedescribedinasimilarway.

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:TheFuneralofSarpedon(BookVIII),”2014 gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades

“Cavafy:TheHorsesofAchilles(Bookl),”2013

17¼x23½in.

8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:TheFuneralofSarpedon(BookX),”2014 gicleeprint 13¾x17¾in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:Windows(Bookl),”2013 gicleeprint 13¾x17¾in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:TheHorsesofAchilles(BookXVII),”2017 gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades

gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

“Cavafy:TheHorsesofAchilles(BookVI),”2013

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:TheFuneralofSarpedon,”2017 gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:Walls(BookVI),”2013 gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades “Cavafy:TheRetinueofDionysos,”2017 gicleeprint 17¼x23½in. 8/30

AlexandraAthanassiades

gicleeprint 18x24in. 8/30

“Cavafy:TheRetinueofDionysos,”2017

AlexandraAthanassiades

“HorseXXXIII,”2002 bronze

10x7x4in.

AlexandraAthanassiades

“Linda'sHorse,”1998 bronze 12½x8¾x6in.

8/8

AlexandraAthanassiades

“Helen'sHorse,”1998 bronze

8¼x8¼x5in

AlexandraAthanassiades

“Horse4.”2015 bronze 9x8x4in.

JamesEsber

WhileAthanassiades’sinfluencesreachfarbackintime,JamesEsber mines a more recent and particularly American experience. His vibrant drawings and paintings both compel and repel us. It feels fittingthatAIisamongthesourcesusedinderivinghisunexpected juxtapositions. In contrast to the publicly accessible sources of his layered images are the relationships between the characters in his work, many of which reference memories from his childhood and, more recently, his experience of being a parent. The images in the workarefamiliar,yetsomehowremainunnamableandindescribable. Thelinesbetweendrawingandpainting,figurationandabstraction blur in Esber’s work, where the line is electric and mutating forms areevidentthroughout.

acryliconPVCpanel 12x9in.

JamesEsber “Couple,”2024 JamesEsber “Crush,”2024

“SelfieonBlue,”2017-21

acryliconPVCpanel 12x9in.

“MonkeyandPig,”2023

acryliconPVCpanel 12x9in.

JamesEsber JamesEsber

“FigureonaBeach,”2023

acryliconPVCpanel 12x9in.

“BowTie,”2023

acryliconpaper 12x9in.

JamesEsber JamesEsber

17x14in.

JamesEsber “Rescue,”2023 acryliconpaper

JamesEsber “SleeperII,”2020 acryliconPVCpanel 12x9in.

MargieNeuhaus

Margie Neuhaus’s subtly complex drawings and weavings share Esber’s connection to mark making and shape shifting. Neuhaus’s workexplorescontinuityandchangewithinasystem,asreflectedin naturalandmanmadestructures.Sheinventssystemstocreatetwoand three-dimensional structures that test the boundaries of the systems they establish. A source of the transformations and empty spaces in her work are the memories of her childhood in the Catskills, where unused, deteriorating hotels and tilting hay barns stoodincontrasttonewconstruction.Thereisabare,stripped-down quality in Neuhaus’s work, which evokes a sense of contemplation thatspeakstoemptyspacesandabandonedplaces.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.5.5),”2023

pastelandwatercolorgraphiteonpaper 14x11in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.7.18),”2023

watercolorongraphitepaper 14x11in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2024.1.5),”2024

rawsilkandlinenpaper 13x11in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.2.1-1),”2023

watercolor,graphiteandpastelonpaper 14x11in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.7.22),”2023 watercolorongraphitepaper 14x11in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.7.4),”2023 silk,graphite,linenpaperwrappedinrawsilk, andcottongima 12x10in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2018.6.29),”2018

cottonandwool 11.5x27.25in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Tendril,”2022

rawsilk,linenpaper,bamboopaper,andrawkuzufiber 12x20in.

MargieNeuhaus

“Untitled(2023.8.19),”2023

watercolorandgraphitepaper 14x11in.

DebraPriestly

InNeuhaus’sandDebraPriestly’swork,thesilencesareasimportant as the actions. Priestly’s work has the most apparent connection to memory,asitsfocusisapersonalarchiveoffamilyhistory,ancestry, and cultural preservation. Priestly exhibits a major diptych, McCoy and Veora Priestly, in which images of her parents softly emerge from an almost ghostly white space. Her poetic and restrained drawings are accompanied by three of Priestly’s newest sculptures— black clay figurative vessels that reveal a solidity and intimacy that alsoquietlyandpowerfullycalltheviewertoattentiontonoticethe beautifuldetailsandpowerfulmetaphors.