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January 9 – February 8,
2003
KIMBERLY VENARDOS & COMPANY is pleased to announce the opening of
an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by LARRY BEMM. Please
join us at a reception for the artist Thursday, January 9th, 2003 from
6pm to 8pm. The exhibition will remain on view through February 8th,
2003. KIMBERLY VENARDOS & COMPANY is located at 1014 Madison Avenue,
between 78th and 79th Streets.
Punctuated by animated forms and warm rich colors, LARRY BEMM: New Work
brings together fifteen paintings and works on paper by this
Seattle-based artist. Building on his signature abstract vocabulary, the
exhibition continues the artist’s investigation of space, theatricality
and levity. LARRY BEMM’s fresh and imaginative compositions reflect a
modern sensibility, subtly referencing imagery from commercial culture
and daily life, reducing them to their basic elements.
In “Broadcast” a cascade of chocolate colored circles spin down like
balls bouncing across a slice of Neapolitan ice cream. A scooped fringe,
suggesting a stage curtain about to rise, anchors the composition.
BEMM’s laconic proclamation is youthful and exuberant, enticing us to
stop and take in the performance. “Soup to Nuts” presents a procession
of shapes dancing across a green and blue canvas. At once marching and
meandering, there is a playful yet mischievous quality to the work,
further charged by BEMM’s buoyant use of color.
Regularly employing specific symbols, motions and palette choices, BEMM
establishes personal allegories to convey meaning and emotion. Using
language as a further provocation, his titles redefine and complement
his interests. Paintings such as “Tootle” and “Top-heavy Knickknack”,
conjure sounds as well as images, contextualizing BEMM’s array of forms,
while resituating them within a new chain of associations.
With this new body of work BEMM reveals a personal mythology drawn from
the everyday past and present. BEMM’s compositions, observes author
Matthew Kangas, “take abstract art seriously enough to make [them] carry
humor and pop-culture references…managing to keep the viewer’s eye
moving while expressing an optimism and clarity, they attain a
hedonistic pleasure associated with the great abstract painters of the
past century: Henry Mattisse, Wassily Kandinsky and Ellsworth Kelly.”
LARRY BEMM has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the
United States, China and Japan and his work is in numerous public and
private collections. A frequent juror and lecturer, BEMM has held
teaching positions at the University of Puget Sound and Sichuan Academy
of Fine Art in Chongqing. He received his BFA from Illinois State
University. This is LARRY BEMM’s first solo exhibition in New York.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm
Please visit our website www.venardos.com
For additional information please contact:
Kimberly Venardos & Company, Inc. (212) 879-5858.
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