“Geometric constructs” is a complex phrase with which to grapple. An immediate interpretation – and one whose literalness is well-suited to the visual arts – would be those forms created by simpler forms, images akin to a toy fortress erected from children’s building blocks. On the other hand, it also suggests an overriding theory which incorporates geometric laws, an ideological construct which philosophers as well as mathematicians may fine-tune. In the exhibition Geometric Constructs, participating artists Ashlynn Browning, Gianna Commito, Stephanie McMahon, and Christ Nau navigate an interpretation that lies somewhere between these two readings. While their varying forms of abstract geometric art show the immense compositional potential of lines and planes, their works, when read together, illustrate the rich and multiple uses of relatively simple mathematical concepts.
Browning’s mixed media works belie their very nature. While they purport to be creating dimensionality simply through interconnected lines and adjoined angles, her use of materials such as pastels and oil paints of thick, impasto textures is the central attraction. In a work such as Within This Web, a line is not merely a line. The distance covered in her lines exceeds that between two points; it is also the evolution in green hues of the brushstroke or the projections of pigment into the viewer’s space.
In her self-professed allusions to traditional building materials such as logs, stone, and aluminum, Gianna Commito offers a wry interpretation of the show’s theme with her works. In their own manner, they are referencing anything from the basic structure behind a construction as simple as a Lincoln log house to architecture as complex as a skyscraper. However, in the subtle manipulations of color shades throughout her stripes and angles, she upends these seemingly solid planes into Escher-like landscapes.
Instead of finessing geometrical constructions out of a standard picture plane, Stephanie McMahon dictates them by beginning with non-traditional backings, be they the cut paper assemblies that loom from a wall or her oil paintings on irregularly shaped panels. Her work does not examine geometries simply by abandoning a rectangular format, though. In a work like Trails, depth is achieved through intersecting color planes; a curve that starts as red may transition to navy, lending a degree of mystery as to her forms’ beginnings and ends. In Entwine, she instead structures space by complicating a series of parallel lines amidst physically overlapping layers.
Chris Nau’s works put flat forms into a bizarre tug-of-war with blended backgrounds that may suggest horizon lines or a recession of space. In this juxtaposition, the flattened polygons somehow impart a greater sense of solidity than the studied consideration of blended brushstrokes. Without relying on any conventional references, his pieces give a sense of the representational and abstract modes peacefully coexisting.
Geometric Constructs illustrates a panoply of contemporary geometric abstraction styles. In so doing, it also reveals a paradox present in the exhibition. In attempting to define the many modes through which construction may occur, it prevents a true construct from being formed. A neat definition of geometric capabilities eludes the viewer in the face of the creative array presented.
