DAVID IVIE and RUTH LAUER
For his third solo exhibition at the gallery, and his first in New York in three years, David Ivie will present a new group of his intimately-scaled (each 8 x 10 inches) oil paintings on canvas, along with a large selection of recent drawings in graphite and India ink, and for the first time sculpture, cast in bronze editions.
Ivie, who is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, was trained as a Jungian psychotherapist working with abused children. Over the years he has incorporated archetypal symbolism into his paintings, so that certain objects re-appear in his compositions: a naked male figure; a darkly cloaked or gowned woman; snow; forests; water; a house or shelter of some sort, etc.; all vividly etched underneath an often moonlit, windswept sky.
In this new body of works, Ivie's palette has grown softer, earthier, and his paint application thicker. The lonesome figures and houses, which before were starkly outlined, now drop back to a misty middle ground where they mesh with the landscape, and the earlier Gothic shadows have been replaced by an even, overall lighting effect. The forms and architecture clearly show the influence of Ivie's last few years living in London, where he often travels to the English countryside.
For her first showing at the gallery, Ruth Lauer will exhibit small-scale abstract paintings, drawings, and photographs. These media are often combined in her work, so that a painting or drawing may also contain a photograph of her father, or a friend, or of a ritual retreat in India. By conflating paintings with photographs of these very personal subjects, Lauer refers to a specific moment in time; while the paintings, worked in shadings of white and soft colors, more largely embrace a continuum. According to the artist, "the paintings give the photographs a quality similar to flowers on an alter, prayers before eating, string tied around a tree, or simply the closing of oneีs eyes in a place of worship."