Mamaroneck, NY – The Bullseye New York Gallery presents kilnformed panels and sculptures by Catharine Newell and Amanda Simmons. Accumulations will be on view February 23 – May 28, 2016.
For her newest body of work, Portland-based artist Catharine Newell focused on the subtle accumulation and deterioration found in natural processes. The accretive building of oyster shells influenced how she built layer upon layer of powdered glass to create the textured and nuanced surfaces of her kilnformed glass panels. Oistre IX (2015) is comprised of three square panels. The sculptural surface, reminiscent of masonry, veils an intensely layered subsurface. We are only allowed glimpses of what came before. “I find it logical,” says Newell, “that we stand only in the present, loosely composed of impressions of our past and future.” Each work, like each of us, is a palimpsest created from the shadows of what we were and who we will be. Similarly, Scottish artist Amanda Simmons is interested in the creation of meaning through accumulation. “We have collected objects ever since we have had somewhere to put things,” says Simmons. “I am interested in our emotional responses to objects and the connection we build with inanimate items.” This interest has manifested in work that draws on field marks and patterns found on birds and in natural forms. Feather from the Swallows Platter (2014) is a shallow slumped vessel. The pattern that covers the surface, created using many layers of kilnformed glass powders, recalls the separated vanes found in molted feathers. “The starting point to all my work is a connection [that] I will investigate… making a visual representation of my research and reactions, often leading to more questions.”
Catharine Newell was selected by Western Art & Architecture as “One to Watch,” was chosen four times by Corning Museum of Glass for the annual New Glass Review, and has been featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Art Beat. Newell’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Academy of Arts & Design in Tsinghua University in Beijing, China; the Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Washington; and the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Amanda Simmons worked as a clinical perfusionist before devoting herself to her studio practice full time. Simmons earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Glass and Architecture with distinction from Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design, London. In 2012, Simmons was a finalist in Bullseye’s Emerge competition. Since then she has exhibited at SOFA Chicago and Collect. Simmons currently lives and works in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland.