Modicum

This exhibition features 10 artists who are joining the newly envisioned Artspace Flatfile program for the year 2021. This exhibition is curated by Sara Maria Salamone of Mrs. Gallery.

The term modicum denotes a “small quantity of a particular thing, especially something considered desirable or valuable,” according to Google.  When considering how this word relates to art and curation; consideration, selection, knowledge, and expertise all come into play.  A flat file physically contains a finite amount of flat artworks within it’s metal drawers.  There are constrictions and limitations on space: one is required to be selective regarding what is housed inside.  It is a microcosm for artworks at a specific scale – generally under twenty-four by twenty inches.  With a keen awareness of their mediums, the artists selected to share this structure offer a measure of their greater individual practices.

Employing representational photography, Nate Lerner, David Ottenstein and Yawen Zheng provide a direct view into their worlds while Barbara Wissberger uses the lens to fabricate new spaces and bodies.  Yura Adams and Jennifer Davies explore abstraction in nature, finding poetry in rock formation and geologic time.  Erin Koch Smith’s drawings evoke a dance of abject bodies: heavily scribbled on legal pads and gently moistened by watercolor, they provide a sketch as a starting point.  Using found pellet-gun targets, Barbara Marks simply and joyfully reinterprets these geometric sheets with brightly colored markers obfuscating their original use.  Fascinated with the process of painting and the interplay between intention and accident, Jenny Krauss inspires the viewer to free-associate and create meaning within her paintings, which have more in common with simple chemistry experiments than traditional painting techniques.  Gerald Saladyga’s collages represent the historical political events and social consequences that define the present day experience.