Lorraine Shemesh: On Balance | February 29 - April 3, 2024
Alice Duncan
Senior Director
aduncan@gpgalleryny.com
On Balance
The work of Lorraine Shemesh dynamically illuminates lived experience in a universal and transformative manner. She has developed a process that employs palpable figuration and conceptual abstraction by working with pattern on form. Using figures and shapes in motion, Shemesh addresses ideas of both disjuncture and harmony. The relationship between tension and tranquility is made visible as an expression of the human condition in lyric form, through her tactile and luminous handling of materials. The coming together of the figures in the paintings, and the banding patterns of alternating colors in the ceramic vessels, are a response to the human desire for connection. This is especially salient during moments of trying to hold on while having to learn to let go. It is no accident that the language used to describe elements in working with the figure mirror components of a ceramic piece; the lip, the neck, the shoulder, the belly, and the foot all come together to form the whole. The sense of fluidity and rhythm in Shemesh’s work is generated by her lifelong interest in dance. The work takes into account the fact that professional dancers are encouraged to fall in rehearsal so that they may know the tipping point of any given movement. In visual terms the notion of being “on balance” demonstrates the wish to take everything into consideration. In so doing, her work balances a myriad of aesthetic choices formidably, while seamlessly provoking a wide range of interpretations.
The exhibition is accompanied by a hardcover book
Lorraine Shemesh: On Balance
Documenting 30 years of the artist’s work
Shemesh’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States and internationally. She has served as Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College and held teaching positions at the Rhode Island School of Design and Amherst College. Shemesh is an MFA graduate of the Tyler School of Art and her awards include a Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Grant in painting, a Yaddo Fellowship, and a Distinguished Alumni Award in Visual Arts from Boston University. Her work has been reviewed/reproduced in Art in America, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Harper’s Magazine among others. She was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2004. Lorraine Shemesh lives and works in New York City.
Lorraine Shemesh
Black & White Checked Nerikomi Bottle 2021
porcelain
10 3/4 x 7 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches
Lorraine Shemesh
Black & White Checked Nerikomi Vessel 2021
porcelain
10 3/4 x 9 5/8 x 9 inches
Lorraine Shemesh
Black & White Tall Twist Nerikomi Bottle 2021
porcelain
11 x 8 x 2 3/4 inches
Lorraine Shemesh
Black & White Wide Twist Nerikomi Bottle II 2021
porcelain
8 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches
Lorraine Shemesh
Blue & White Swirl Ledge Neriage Vessel 2021
porcelain
7 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches
Lorraine Shemesh
Blue & White Swirl Neriage Oblong Vessel 2021
porcelain
11 x 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches
