April 20 - May 21

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 22, 4-6pm

440 Gallery is pleased to present Through the Looking Glass, a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Ellen Chuse. This collection of acrylics on paper represents Chuse’s on-going spiritual journey as an artist, as well as reflections on aging and intimations of mortality. Deceptively simple compositions are formed with deeply saturated color and bold symbolic shapes that create a complex and meditative experience for the viewer. This is the eighth solo show at the gallery for Chuse.

Chuse writes about her work:
“When Alice first passed through the looking glass she found herself in a disquieting and unknown place. In 2017, I found myself falling into a new and disturbing world. I began making intensely dark images. Initially they felt ominous and frightening, but eventually this morphed into meditations on shape and color. Those pared-down compositions became my ‘looking glass,’ in a sense, portals that have carried me into new and uncharted places.
The new paintings in Through The Looking Glass remain emotionally resonant. This series pairs my exploration of saturated color with archetypal forms. These forms, and the passages through them, represent entryways into the unknown. In some cases the images can seem an invitation, in others an obstruction, but there is always a way through. The beauty of an abstract, symbolic image is that meaning will vary from one person to another, one culture to another. As I’ve explored this over the years, I have discovered an inherent mystery and ambiguity of meaning to my art which I find exciting. Ideally, these artworks challenge the viewer to bring personal associations and experiences to each piece.”

While these paintings don’t follow Alice’s story, they do indeed reflect Chuse’s grace in embracing the unknown. “Process is very important to me,” says Chuse. “I know where to begin but can never predict where the piece will eventually lead me. I intuitively create within the shapes and colors that engage me at the moment, and I am often surprised to discover the family of work that emerges.”

Ellen Chuse has been a member of 440 Gallery for over 15 years and for 23 years has been an active participant in the Gowanus arts community. Chuse received her BFA in Fine Arts from Philadelphia College of Art (now UArts) and her MFA in Sculpture from Queens College, CUNY. She studied in Italy as a Fulbright Fellow in Sculpture in 1972-73. Her work has been exhibited widely, from the New York metropolitan area to South Korea as well as in Austin, TX and Rome, Italy. In Brooklyn, her work has been shown at the Kentler International Drawing Space, Established Gallery, Site:Brooklyn, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, and St. Joseph’s University, as well as the Art on Paper fair in Manhattan. In 2022, she was invited to participate in the Italian-based annual BAU: Container of Contemporary Culture, currently being exhibited throughout Europe. Chuse lives and works in Brooklyn.

Project Space: Shape Scapes

Taking shape both literally and figuratively, Shape Scapes is a group show featuring the work of Fred Bendheim, Karen Gibbons and Catherine Orrok. Individually, each artist considers shape in a distinct way: intricately-cut forms, symbolic mixed-media constructions, and geometry that is as fundamental as a square. Collectively, this show highlights the expansive view of shape as a frame of reference for viewing work that goes beyond just a framed piece hanging on a wall.

Fred Bendheim’s “tondos” exist in a space where painting and sculpture intersect. His 24-inch tondos start out as circles hand-cut from PVC board that are then shaped so that sinuous forms emerge. Using acrylics, Bendheim emphasizes the abstract shapes through meticulous applications of paint that are often gradations or contrasts on a color scheme. His brightly colored palettes imbue the work with a joyful, playful movement as the forms, lines, and colors relate to each other in ways that imply optical illusions of space. As Bendheim states, “My art is a transmission of feelings and intuition in form.”

Karen Gibbons refers to the natural world in her mixed-media constructions. “Nature is the subject, along with the concept that we are not separate from it. This work is about our creature-ness,” says Gibbons. Combining collage, drawing and other materials on a base of birch panels, she urges us to be conscious of elements such as forests, terrain and creatures of our planet. The paints, drawing materials and surfaces she employs point to shapes that are reminiscent of symbols and sacred geometry that are found in the underpinnings of the universe —all visual ways that Gibbons communicates her message.

Catherine Orrok’s abstract paintings are defined by the grid which is the starting point. To emphasize the non-objective aspect of this work, she uses a square format, a shape that is alluded to and reflected in the content. The geometry, however, is unstable and dynamic. Acrylics, applied in a bold, painterly manner, provide Orrok with the language of color and form to create spacial effects that are filled with movement. “The choices I make are intuitive,” says Orrok. “Space is invented as I go along, the process rife with uncertainty in spite of the grid.”