FOR JANUARY 14 –

HAIM CHANIN TO PRESENT SERENE OBSESSION –

TG/jl set 12-29 #614353

NEW YORK CITY — Haim Chanin will present “Serene Obsession,” a selection of mixed-media works created by a repetitive action, January 20–February 26. Artists include Robert Bowen, Maggie Cardelus, Edith Derdyk, Maximo Gonzalez, Virginia Katz, Seth Kaufman, Eduardo Santiere and Alejandra Villasmil.

The exhibition comprises artworks created by the seemingly endless repetition of an action or mark-making. In these process-oriented works the artists developed novel techniques and pushed the material to new forms, in many challenging the concept of traditional sculpture.

Artist Robert Bowen pairs form and text in this series of digital black and white prints. Bowen uses classical writings, such as Alice in Wonderland and Moby Dick, to create allegorical images with the texts themselves.

Maggie Cardelus uses photo cutouts to create embroidery or latticelike sculptural shapes. The artist spends numerous hours incising the photographs and attaching the pieces onto a wall or armature to build her delicate organic installations.

Edith Derdyk’s thread and staples installations are labor-intensive. They require the artist to walk back and forth stapling each string to the walls, floor and ceiling until, slowly, a black mass begins to emerge. In the show, Derdyk presents her “Cantoneiras,” three-dimensional thread drawings made to be placed in corners.

Maximo Gonzalez uses out-of-date currency to make playful narratives. He cuts out the bills into smaller shapes to create small tableaus, such as “Love Profusion” and “Landscape with Trash.”

Virginia Katz devices mapping systems to apprehend intangible experiences, invisible structures and motion. In “Tidal Cycles” Katz sits for hours on the beach, recording the levels of each wave; thicker marks corresponds to higher waves, thinner for lower ones. The result are 30-foot-long scrolls.

The California-based artist Seth Kaufman uses organic materials to create three-dimensional works. In the series presented, Kaufman painstakingly cuts and mounts paint chips together to form fragile and delicate structures. He also uses orange peel, eggshells and sawdust.

Eduardo Santiere’s work is about the subtle, the minimal. The Argentine artist creates tiny microcosms by marking and scratching the surface of white paper. In this context, minute puffs of cotton paper seem to soar like mountains. Holland Cotter wrote for The New York Times that “Eduardo Santiere …. gracefully messes up formal distinctions by using a needle to scratch a paper surface into all-but-invisible sculptural relief.”

Growth and transformation and accumulation and change are themes that reappear in Alejandra Villasmil’s work as ways of approaching the processes of life and death. In “Formations” the artist creates a white, coral-like wall, made of minute rolls of plaster and gauze. In “Proliferation” small objects, found in nature, are captured in polymer and connected to one another by a pencil drawing. The work appears to replicate organically.

Haim Chanin Fine Arts is at 210 Eleventh Avenue, second floor. For information, www.HaimChanin.com or 646-230-7200.