There will be an opening reception for Abstract
Saturday, April 9, 2011, from 2pm – 10pm.
Meet the artists from 7- 10 pm
Edge Zones Art Center
47 NE 25th Street
Miami, Florida.

Edge Zones Main Gallery ABSTRACT, a group exhibition of Florida based artists: George Bethea | Julie Davidow | John Germain | Terri Lindbloom | Ekaterina Narciso | Charo Oquet | Kathleen Staples | Ileana Tolibia | Kerry Ware | Bradley Wester

Edge Zones, one of the leading art centers in Miami, will open the vibrant exhibition featuring abstract art by ten Florida based artists, in the main gallery from April 9 – April 29, 2011. The exhibition bring together contemporary Florida artist who are creating abstract art and who employ a wide range of media seeking discerning solutions to construct and deconstruction space, utilizing streams of flowing color touching upon the perceptions of recognizable image. This thematic exhibition was a chance to showcase the essential yet powerful effect a form of art in which the artist expresses himself purely through the use of form and color. There is a wide range of stylistic diversity within this nonrepresentational framework.

Non-objective art is one of several means of transcendence of the objective, practical modern world. For John Germain, painting becomes by default an interior, subconscious journey. It is in this way that he creates forms that comply with his sensibility; where material, means and content converge. He utilizes his inconclusive yet fascinating process as an exhilarating means to self-discovery; a record of choices made over periods of time, physical and psychic visual residue.

In recent work Bradley Wester returns to the painterly gesture describing an illusionistic image on canvas. However, these new paintings are meant to be quotations of familiar images, in this case, Japanese motifs and decoration. He treats these motif-paintings simply as another everyday material or image-object that he combines with other recognizable objects to make art. He inserts and arranges them as one component of many, inside what he calls a cluster. Bradley sees each cluster as an individual and complete work of art that relates. The intention is to equalize the value of the familiar Japanese image with the common, everyday objects he uses. He treats these cluster-pieces, or pods of visual narrative that radiate out to other pod-narratives and that can be seen to mirror our hyper-linked digital age, with no start or finish, and no linear historic narrative.

Ekaterina Narciso’s, work concerns deconstruction of space found in contemporary abstract painting today. Fragments of brightly colored shards migrate in and out of picture planes echoing systems, pattern and state of flux found in nature. Kaleidoscopic portals and streams of flowing color touch upon the perceptions of recognizable image occasionally hinting at the landscapes or the city, as well as referring to the elements of nature and space.

Through the use of drawing, small mixed media objects, and painting Ileana Tolibia struggles to understand the synchronization within the unbounded space. Her transformative, organic and aerial paintings attempt to translate images of her subconscious combined with emotions and associations into a conscious language of meaningfulness.

George Bethea’s uses acrylic paint, gels, sand and other textural elements to express himself through color, surface, and design in his attempt to make paintings that are beautiful and full of life.

Julie Davidow creates contradiction, which are inherent to her work. A struggle to control and relinquish are persistent drives in her process. At once measured and defined, she embraces chance through pliage. The folds and scores in the canvas yield an aleatorical ground. Space, organization, pattern seeking, discerning solution guide a precise, meticulous investigation to map the visual information and establish structure. It is a search for the gestalt. The imagery is drawn from biological, sexual, botanical, geological, cartographic, and architectural influences; and an overall concern with the conflicts between the natural and the built environments.

Kathleen Staples paints wet on wet with fluid paints suspended in acrylic medium, obtaining a variety of transparency and texture. Each layer interacts with the layer underneath and the one above, and layers of wet paint laid down at different stages of dryness create different surface effects. She uses colors as the “soul” of the painting, an intuitive expression of her feeling.

Terri Lindbloom takes an inter-disciplinary approach. Working predominantly within multi-media installations. His conceptual work can be at times minimal and terse. In some of her “text” drawings she has been investigating the internal “chatter” within the mind, editing it down to a few sound bytes. The creative roots of her installations come from her drawing investigations, which need each other for their evolution.

Charo Oquet is interested in introducing a sense of intense chaos in her paintings, in some areas that are later covered and controlled, connected to “action paintings”. Her delivery is a sophisticated blend of complex overlapping layers and compositions.

Kerry Ware’s paintings exhibit subtle shifts of color on scrubbed surfaces. The work is infused with color similar to frescos – using painting as a source of spiritual nourishment that goes beyond labels, language, gimmicks and glitz.