MAYA BLOCH – FEELS LIKE HOME
2014-12-01Bloch continues her study of the interplay between abstraction and the figure, and for the first time, showing a new body of work of pencil drawings on canvas.
The large paintings on view include three abstracted figurations and one still life. Expending on her familiar painterly processes, Bloch’s new figure-works incorporate thick brushstrokes, washes, and at times collage elements. Compared with her earlier work, the palette of the new paintings is somewhat reduced and the compositions are simplified.
In the painting “Untitled (The Viewers),” a group of seven anonymous characters is playfully arranged on the canvas. Some of them direct an intense gaze outward, others appear as silhouettes or shadows of themselves. One can only guess if the painting’s title refers to the figures depicted on the canvas or to the gallery visitors viewing it.
Bloch’s estranged characters also make an appearance in her new set of pencil works. The ten pieces included are smaller in scale, drawn in black and white with touches of color, and just as surreal. In “Shirt Man” a crowd of people surrounds a headless figure in a dark space. “Elephant” depicts a figure with an elephant head, and “Painter,” perhaps a self-portrait of sorts, portrays an artist on the backdrop of a dream-like swirl.
Opposite – Untitled (The Viewers), 2013
Exhibition runs through to December 21st, 2014
Thierry Goldberg Gallery
103 Norfolk Street
New York
NY 10002
