FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
LAURA SHARP WILSON
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November 21 - December 23, 2003 |
KIMBERLY VENARDOS & COMPANY is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings, drawings and sculpture by LAURA SHARP WILSON. Please join us at the opening reception Friday, November 21st from 6pm to 8pm. The exhibition will remain on view through December 23, 2003. KIMBERLY VENARDOS & COMPANY is located at 1014 Madison Avenue, between 78th and 79th Streets. Lush and meticulously rendered floral images, rich in color and texture, flourish in the work of LAURA SHARP WILSON. Informed by nature but drawn from her imagination, WILSON’s densely patterned works investigate the human condition in relation to the natural environment. Imbuing organic forms and decorative motifs with a sense of vitality, she creates intense visual narratives that serve as the vehicle for her psychological musings. Influenced by textiles both formally and thematically, WILSON paints on fibrous Japanese paper, weaving and layering her compositions as if sewing with needle and thread. The exhibition also includes drawings and sculptures, decidedly more spare works, which mark the evolution of WILSON’s visual language. Obsessively overwrought and distinctly surreal, WILSON’s work engages in a wildly unraveling discourse. In Awkward Every Minute a prickly cactus-like form is encircled by a halo of radiant orange twigs, while a crisscrossing tendril ensnares a knotty branch in silhouette. Into the composition, a tangled ball of intertwined fiber is mysteriously hoisted against a background abundantly peppered with soft leafy forms. While in Cable Crossing the Youghigeny, three sprouting pods dangle from a thin vine as if languidly waiting for the wind to carry them away. LAURA SHARP WILSON is currently included in two nationally touring exhibitions - Bad Touch at the Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA and New American Talent at the Jones Center for Contemporary Art, Austin, TX and she was featured in ArtPoint, during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002. She is the recipient of a Special Project Grant from the Allegany Arts Council and an Individual Artists Award from the Maryland State Council on the Arts. She also recently completed a Fellowship Residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and has apprenticed at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Ms. Wilson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MFA) and Carnegie Mellon University (BA).
This is LAURA SHARP WILSON’s first solo
exhibition in New York. |