May 26 - June 27, 2021

440 Gallery is proud to present Making Space, by the well-known Brooklyn-based artist, Fred Bendheim. The exhibition will consist of nine of the artist's vibrant shaped new works, in his fifth solo show at 440 Gallery. The works were all made in the last year in an intense period of creativity for the artist.

Making Space refers to both outer and inner space. Celestial imagery abounds: circles, spirals, ellipses and azure space collide in translucent layers of paint. Or wait! On closer inspection, the viewer realizes that these transparent effects are illusions created with skillful mixes of color applied on flat shapes that echo the larger shapes of the formats they're painted on (Bendheim is Buddhist). The format, Bendheim's trademark shaped-paintings on PVC board, are a device he has used for over fifteen years. This unusual format allows him a freedom of boundless expression, while he maintains a bold compositional method with amazing boarder-crossing results. Although Bendheim sees himself as primarily a painter, the works exist in a realm between painting and sculpture.

Making Space also refers to spaces of within the body and mind. The artist recalls hearing the term in several yoga classes. The abstract realm of heaven is a world of light, grand in scale. The everyday realm here on earth is one of matter and fine details. For Bendheim, work and play are "making space"; he is endlessly fascinated with contrast and juxtaposition. His hopes for art, is that it will make mental and spiritual space for humanity.

Making Space reflects this fascination. Elements of bright color contrasting deep blues and purples. Shaped paintings with suns glowing out of negative spaces. Coiling shapes that are restraint? embrace? pathway? For Bendheim, these separate definitions are part of a totality.

"I like using the open-ended format of shaped, non-rectangular works. It allows me a freedom from the formula of rectangles, and it allows the walls to become part of piece, to have a conversation in space with the shapes and colors I have chosen.” Bendheim 2019

Fred Bendheim has had numerous one-person shows and his works are in collections world-wide including: The Museum of Arts & Design, NY; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Montclair Art Museum, The National Gallery of Costa Rica; The Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, Italy; The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, The Plotkin Museum, The Brooklyn Public Library, NY; Denise Bibro Fine Art, NY; Jason McCoy Gallery, Bradley International Airport, Los Angeles, CA; The Mayo Center for Humanities, Scottsdale, AZ. His commissions include fountain-sculptures for Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, murals for Industry City, Brooklyn, and paintings for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, among others. His past art has taken the form of large room-sized installations, outdoor billboards with children's art, sculptures, and fountains made with many materials, as well as mural-sized drawings. He has written articles about art for the British journal The Lancet, and he has been on the faculty at the Art Students League and The College of Mt. Saint Vincent in New York City. Bendheim lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two tigers.

Fred Bendheim's artist's talk on June 6th will expand on his vision and his working process: pacing, looking, drawing, dried fruit, looking again, painting maquettes, gelato, looking once more, then transforming the compositions to the more sculptural wood or PVC board.

Project Space: “Concept”

440 Gallery is pleased to present Concept, a group show featuring work from Richard Barnet, Leigh Blanchard and Gail Flanery. For this show of works on paper, each artist has a distinctive approach that is embedded within the concept of their artwork. Richard Barnet, calling upon his medium of sculpture, presents lively,
non-linear watercolors that become constructs for a series of “play sculptures.” Leigh Blanchard’s distinctive digital methods appear to be mere abstraction, yet the references to organic and artificial imagery is intrinsic to her ideal of what a photograph can become. Printmaker Gail Flanery goes beyond the traditional definition of making multiples of an image. Her monotypes are abstracted assemblages of shape and color, with a distinct relationship between nature and art making.

“These watercolors are attempts to grasp my thoughts for what I deem as play sculptures. They may or may not ever be built as live three-dimensional objects. Rather, these paintings are part of how I develop concepts for designs. Each watercolor approaches how I think about design in a different way.” ~ Richard Barnet The three watercolors included in this show present an exploration of colors and shapes, sculptural sensibility and mood.

Leigh Blanchard is exhibiting pieces from two past bodies of work. “Fuse #1” and “Fuse #2” utilize digital photography and computer-rendered imagery to create harmony and discord between the organic and artificial. In “Up”, Blanchard reinvents old photographs from her personal archive by digitally painting and erasing elements of the legacy image. This reworking of the image grants it a fluidity and paint-like organicism that isn’t typically seen in traditional photography. Selecting works from these two different series and processes reveals Blanchard's interest in pushing the boundaries of photography.

Gail Flanery’s current grouping of monotypes employs tone, size, palette, and composition to convey a serene mood, with allusions to something deeper. Flanery says, “I find myself exploring and balancing relationships of color and form, along with experimenting with abstract spatial structure. I use nature to help me understand color in a most basic manner.” Flanery’s approach, which clearly has become essential to her process, allows the imagery to grow in a nonobjective way, all while emphasizing its emotional power.