Hopscotch
Kat Chamberlin, Alyson Ainsworth, and Leonora Loeb
Curated by Matt Logsdon
March 10 - April 23, 2023
A walk can activate inner rhythms that tune us in to the intricacies of our built environment. Shadows flutter through a chain link fence. An oil-soaked puddle collides with the curb. A freshly painted wall is already tagged. These artists activate similar impressions in their work—carefully considered subtleties.
Sometimes expression is there, waiting to be discovered. Paint peels away wildly from a wall in a massive flake, frozen and undisturbed by everything around it. Its defiance is impressive; most don’t think about fixing it. Leonora Loeb’s sculptures feel like this—poetic textural observations. They read like fragments of a walk around the neighborhood, suggesting the value of subtle manipulations. Like names scratched in wet concrete, Loeb’s etched surfaces are like temporary occurrences cherished, preserved in clay.
A similar ambient rhythm finds its way through Alyson Ainsworth’s paper weaves, which connect the micro to the macro—hundreds of tiny units bind together to build a larger structural expression. Criss-crossing bands are formed by rows of tiny paper stitches, illustrating a pattern that infuses strength to what is otherwise fragile.
A reflection obscures what is behind a window, until a different angle reveals everything inside. It’s a similar experience to see Kat Chamberlin’s experimental frames. Black tinted plexiglass brings the space and its viewer into consideration, like peering into a still pond. Carefully drawn forms are suspended, altered, suggesting utility that can’t be pinpointed. Small sculptures are trapped behind glass in pockets around the frame like reliquaries, echoing forms in the drawing. The art is only fully revealed by our movement.
By emphasizing the movement that lines create, these artists suggest drawing to activate any medium. Each moves their medium forward, presenting work in a way that deviates from tradition. Identifying as flat and leading with mark-making, Loeb’s ceramics focus on drawing and feel like paintings. Almost in the opposite, Chamberlin makes drawing feel more like installation—the frame augmenting our experience. Similarly, Ainsworth gives flat textile a sculptural sensibility, with line as its building block. Together they converse in the language of line across media, inviting us to consider texture and its effect on our own spatial awareness.
– Til Will
