The Built Environment

The Built

Environment

On the Cover: Detail of Noah Loesberg's "Tire Tread Drawings 33

The Built Environment Curated by Alyssa Alexander and Celeste Kaufman On View August 3rd - September 8th, 2018

The relationship between artists and nature has been celebrated throughout history, with landscape painting and honoring the sublime often being at the forefront of respected art. Even with abstraction, references to the natural world are common. The urban landscape, however, has not been as extensively explored. "The Built Environment" is a collection of artists who are inspired by the manmade world. While working in abstraction, they incorporate elements of urban architecture, industrialization, and technology that occupy these spaces. Their use of line, color, and form are reminiscent of the geometry of the city, and their materials may be sourced from the city itself.

Luke Achterberg Luke Achterberg seeks to blur the line between street art and fine art. Coming from a family of mechanics, he is inspired by classic cars, vehicular adornment, graffiti writing, and Americana. He fabricates steel sculptures and uses automotive paint in a bold palette to embellish them with his signature “SuperSleek� style.

Pabulum, 2015 automotive paint on steel 42 x 22 in.

I Drop, 2010 automotive paint on steel 48 x 24 in.

Mary Didoardo Mary Didoardo uses line as a design element, masking out spontaneous lines into planes of color before building up continuous layers of paint and repeating the process. The final works have a similar aesthetic to graffiti, and the texture of the surfaces mirror the exteriors of buildings that have been painted, allowed to fade or scrubbed down, and then painted again.Â

Run Amok, 2018 Oil on wood 12 x 30 in.

Laocoon, 2018 Oil on wood 18 x 24 in.

Sedona, 2018 Oil on wood 24 x 18 in.

Joanne Freeman Joanne Freeman’s paintings are rooted in the architecture and geometry of New York City, and the reductive formal language of modernist signage and design. Her forms reference graphic popular culture, particularly midcentury aesthetics, and the interplay of boldly colored shapes against a stark white background are a nod to the effects of light and shadow within the space of a city.Â

Space 17 (Summer 15), 2017 Oil on canvas 18 x 18 in.

Summer B, 2018 Gouache on paper 18 x 18 in.

Summer A, 2018 Gouache on paper 18 x 18 in.

Wait For It, 2017 Oil on linen 18 x 18 in.

Jeffrey Cortland Jones Jeffrey Cortland Jones is inspired by the grit and entropy of his urban surroundings, as well as countercultures that thrive in that environment. His “Photosynthesis” series is a collection of small works on paper influenced by Jones’ love for skateboarding. The collages are created with skateboard stickers, forming organic shapes primarily in black and white that have a sense of movement as they approach the white space.

Photosynthesis (FTC)

Photosynthesis (Active)

2018, vinyl on paper 11 x 11 in.Â

Photosynthesis (One Love)

Photosynthesis (Galaxie)

2018, vinyl on paper 11 x 11 in.Â

Workt (Kona), 2016 Enamel on paper 26.5 x 20 in.Â

Workt (Shifters), 2016 Enamel on paper 26.5 x 20 in.Â

Workt (Site), 2016 Enamel on paper 26.5 x 20 in.Â

Workt (Facet), 2016 Enamel on paper 26.5 x 20 in.Â

Noah Loesberg Noah Loesberg investigates the cultural intentions behind architecture, and focuses in on the minutia of the built environment rather than that architecture as a whole. Narrowing his scope to a smaller, more intimate scale, he finds inspiration from construction elements and interior design details. His drawings emerge from patterns found throughout the manmade world like tire treads or window jambs, while his sculptures use the actual elements as materials to construct the work.Â

Rosettes and Plinth Blocks, 2016 Painted Wood 37 x 66 x 1.5 in.Â

Tire Tread Drawings, 2011 #3 (Top Left) #4 (Bottom Left) #6 (Top Right) Charcoal on paper 22 x 30 in.Â

Window Jamb Section Drawings #5, 2009 Oil stick on paper 22 x 30 in.Â

Gudrun Mertes-Frady Gudrun Mertes-Frady grounds her abstract paintings with a geometrical architecture, overlaying fields of often subtle color with metallic lines.

The composition appears mathematically precise, but is an intuitive process. Throughout her career, her work has been influenced by her architect parents, constructivism, and the Bauhaus school in her native Germany. The metallic pigments of her paints lend a subtle kinetic energy to her otherwise meditative pieces, and parallels imagery of construction.Â

Summer, 2018 Oil and metallic pigment on canvas 60 x 63 in.Â

Constellation II (Left) Constellation (Right) 2014 Oil and metallic pigment on canvas 30 x 30 in.Â

All For Yellow, 2016 Oil and metallic pigments on canvas 30 x 30 in.Â

Robert Walden Robert Walden examines the relationship between people and their environment through analyzing concepts relating to time, space, and identity. Not only are his drawings representative of a place, they also encapsulate the physical and philosophical act of mapping space and the labor that it requires. Also interested in the incorporation of surveillance into our urban environments, his work is pulled back to view an imagined location as a whole from an aerial, impersonal perspective.

Ontological Road Map 110810, 2011 Ink on paper 22 x 22 in.Â

Ontological Road Map 123110, 2011 Ink on paper 22 x 22 in.Â

Ontological Road Map 040411, 2011 Ink on paper 22 x 22 in.Â