Gerald Peters Contemporary is pleased to present Geometry of Light: James Marshall and Florence Miller Pierce. The exhibition investigates the formal and conceptual relationships between James Marshall and Florence Miller Pierce, two artists for whom light, dimensional space and perception is both the content and context of their work.

For the last two decades, Marshall has explored what he calls “The Liminal Object”. Fueled by minimalist aesthetics and the potential for an ordinary object to shift dimensions and space, Marshall’s geometric sculptures reveal the illusory potential of form.

The works on view in this exhibition will focus on Marshall’s black series. Begun in 2017, Marshall’s black sculptures join two matte glazes, a dense black and a pewter or gunmetal black, each occupying an area within the piece. Interfusing these two black glazes, slightly different in character, Marshall produces a push/pull tension, amplifying the depth and dimensionality of the piece. This aesthetic complexity is furthered by the resulting surface glow produced at the seam of the two glazes.

Like Marshall, Pierce’s monochromatic works are rooted in geometric abstraction—polygons, triangles, and rectangles dominate the artist’s oeuvre. Encasing her compositions with divided layers of transparent resin over colors that had been softened through mixing with milled fiberglass, Pierce allows for a depth and play of light to emerge from the surface.

On view will be a selection of Pierce’s signature reliefs
completed within the last two decades of her life. This exhibition will mark the first collaborative effort between the Florence Miller Pierce Estate and Gerald Peters Contemporary.