Careful Foresters
Kathryn Markel Fine Art, New York, NY
November 2019
I came there at noon. That is, I came somewhere at noon, but I wasn’t sure where. It was mainly a forest or a thick wood; but the woods were even more carefully tended than is usual in that country of careful foresters, and the path led along the hillside right among the trees.
From The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ky Anderson paints with layers, color and texture that hover and fit together to make each painting an individual jewel. Her work often seems effortless— it’s as if her lines, shapes and sediments of color have settled on their own into an instinctual assembly. Anderson’s canvases and works on paper are painted with overlays that act as additions and subtractions of language. In the same way that letters are the building blocks of words, Anderson’s paintings are constructions of painted language that make expressive and potent abstract poetry.
Anderson approaches each piece with trust in her process, beginning with the first mark of pigment on raw canvas and following the call and response of painted actions to the end. In calling her show at Kathryn Markel Careful Foresters, Anderson has drawn attention to the process of her creation of place. The act of composing and editing a painting relates to the nurture and oversight one must employ to ensure the longevity of the forest. Both are worlds filled with detailed relationships, considered actions, and the choreography of a space.
In previous bodies of work, Anderson viewed her paintings as visual descriptions— responses to stories, memories and experiences. Her work developed from this ongoing private narrative. Recently her attitude towards narrative has changed. She has found the relationship to source material less vital and simply trusts in the process of action and response, relying on the language of form she has developed. In her own words:
As my work has become more abstract so have the stories. Just a quick moment or a small memory can now be enough content for a painting. By letting go of the large story and embracing the micro narrative it’s allowed the abstract and formal side of my painting to emerge as a stronger force. I’m searching for just the right balance of abstraction, formalism and narrative painting in my work.
Anderson works on many paintings at once. She works in series with a palette that may stay constant, but she honors the individual puzzle of each piece. Her work is a mathematical problem of an abstract nature that demands its own “proof”. She lets you see her deliberations in the layers of paint, suggestions of a horizon line, or a pale gray space just visible behind blocks of densely painted shapes. These combinations create a sense of space that is not a far-away vista but an atmosphere. Slight sensory and temporal changes of light, air and shadow are hinted at as you view her paintings.
The titles for the work in Careful Foresters suggest a real or imagined experience of walking in the woods- an idyllic, sylvan place. In Wind, a central stack of intensely pigmented shapes rises like a tower. A curved, branch-like arm emerge out from the bottom of the painting. Pale and airy variegated stripes radiate in the background, creating the effect of dappled light. This simplistic reading of the composition contradicts the complexity of various paint applications, brush strokes, transparencies, scruffy scumbles, hard edges that she uses. In this work Anderson is like the forester; both have an overarching understanding of the materials before them, with intimate knowledge of each process and a vision of how each piece will react to the whole. The finality or “rightness” of Anderson’s compositions at first seem so comfortable that they complicate the understanding of the search that the artist traveled to arrive.
Anderson’s relationship to art was defined at a young age by family and the large community of artists her parents are part of. Her childhood was filled with a reverence for art, community and the activity of making. She was one of a few children in (her words) “a truly exceptional community of artists”... a group that believed that making art should be fun, collaborative and integrated into everyday life. She spent her childhood in observation of this vibrant crowd of artists and left childhood with a strong confidence in the value of making art.
Ky Anderson’s paintings are an elemental and complex communion with landscape. Each painting develops distinctly because of the process it endured at the artist’s hands and because of her willingness to be present to the conversation between herself and the piece. In the act of painting Anderson accesses experience, memory and the unknown. In her framing of place, the vision we see and inhabit as we experience her paintings reverberates with her as our attentive guide.
Essay by Meg Lipke
Meg Lipke is an artist and writer based in New York.
PRESS RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY –– October 24th, 2019 –– Kathryn Markel is pleased to present Careful Foresters, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Ky Anderson. This marks the artist’s second solo exhibition with Kathryn Markel Fine Arts.
Anderson’s paintings on canvas and paper are composed of layers of bold, linear forms. Channeling the primitive origins of drawing with a serene palette and simple shapes, she constructs compositions that are not quite symmetric, but beautifully balanced. Floating layers of color and texture evoke a sense of intuition and unplanned, instinctual mark making.
Anderson works on many paintings at once, maintaining a consistent palette across highly individualized compositions. There is a sense of restraint and intentionality that arises from her process of careful decision-making. Suggestions of space or horizon lines are obscured behind densely rendered shapes, evoking an aura of spatial atmosphere.
Over time her process has evolved from a reliance on narrative reference and storytelling towards a more instinctual, abstract language of form. Painted overlays and textural patterns act as signs and signifiers, crafting constructions of painted language that form expressive and potent visual poetry. In her own words:
“As my work has become more abstract so have the stories. Just a quick moment or a small memory can now be enough content for a painting. By letting go of the large story and embracing the micro narrative it’s allowed the abstract and formal side of my painting to emerge as a stronger force. I’m searching for just the right balance of abstraction, formalism and narrative painting in my work.”
Ky Anderson has lived and worked in New York City for 20 years. She was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where she graduated from The Kansas City Art Institute in 1995. Anderson continues to have strong ties to the Kansas City community and frequently exhibits there. Anderson’s work is also exhibited widely across the country including New York and San Francisco.