TWO X

BENNY ANDREWS & MELVIN L. NESBITT JR., LEON BERKOWITZ & WAYSON JONES, FRANCIS CRISS & KEVIN MACDONALD, JOSEPH MILLS & SHAUNTÉ GATES, NORMAN LEWIS & ROBIN ROSE, ALMA THOMAS & JULIE WOLFE, OTHO BRANSON & RURI YI

November 9 – December 21, 2024

Julie Wolfe
Powers of Ten: Overview, 2024
oil stick, pastel, acrylic, and charcoal on stretched raw canvas
50 x 36 inches

Alma Thomas
Silhouettes, 1960
acrylic and ink on paper
22 1/2 x 30 inches

Alma Woodsey Thomas
Fantasy, 1960
acrylic and ink on paper
22 1/2 x 30 inches

Benny Andrews
Untitled (Saxophone Player), 2000
collage and painting on paper with canvas, signed in image
29 x 22 inches

Melvin Nesbitt Jr.
Stay Close, 2024
Mixed media collage on canvas
72 x 64 inches

Leon Berkowitz
Untitled 1, c. 1976-1980
oil on canvas
49 1/4 x 37 1/2 inches

Wayson R. Jones
Kinshasa, 2024
extra-coarse pumice gel & Flashe on wood panel
48 x 48 inches

Norman Lewis
Composition #62, c. 1960
oil on canvas
38 1/2 x 64 inches

Robin Rose
Flutter, 2019-2024
encaustic on linen on aluminum hexcel panel
36 x 48 inches

Robin Rose
Visitor 1, 2022
encaustic on linen on aluminum hexcel panel
36 x 48 inches

Francis Criss
The El, c. 1962
oil on canvas
23 x 15 3/4 inches

Kevin MacDonald
America Series (slide), January 1, 1999
graphite pencil on paper
10 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches

Kevin MacDonald
America Series (airport), January 1, 1999
graphite pencil on paper
10 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches

Kevin MacDonald
America Series (patio three chairs), January 1, 1999
graphite pencil on paper
10 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches

Joseph Mills
The Diplomat, 2005
original collage on found object
24 x 24 inches

Shaunté Gates
Night Before The Race, 2024
acrylic, photography, collage, wood flooring, colored pencils, charcoal, pennies, US history textbook paper
51 x 51 inches

Otho D. Branson
2018-12-18, 2018
acrylic on masonite
18 1/4 x 31 7/8 inches

Ruri Yi
Eq. 055, 2023
acrylic on canvas
66 x 54 inches

A current approach in contemporary interior design mixes styles with selections of diverse types of art, highbrow and lowbrow, abstract and representational, old and new. There is something positive in the inclusiveness of omnivorous taste, but there can be a roughing over of the content and spirit of the artwork. At worst, there may be a failure to take the grand narrative of art, reaching across time and cultures, seriously. Art has been with us from the beginning, in the bad times and the good. 

 

TWO X is a modest visual essay intent on encouraging a deeper look at the connectedness of all art by pairing the pieces of artists of different generations. The exhibition avoids the traditional monographic perspective of period, style, or an individual artist’s work – often too easily explained in words. Instead, we challenge the viewer to feel the personal commonality between two artists and, from there, the communal nature of all art experiences.