Narrows inherently have unruly energy. Often the result of tectonic activity, these thin tidal straights connecting opposing oceans and seas often have basins at differing levels giving them the potential for bidirectional currents and flow. They’re not easy to predict and must be considered seriously when navigating.
Based in Ridgewood, Queens, Elise Ferguson paints abstract paths and passageways that vibrate, breathe, and feel alive. Ferguson has devised a predetermined and obsessive formula for creating paintings, giving all of her works a defined and unified parameter. Her first step is scraping 10-12 layers of pigmented Venetian plaster onto panels which results in rough deckled edges and a smooth matte, fresco-like finish. Graphite outlines and borders are then drawn in loosely before layers of plaster are silk screened onto the surfaces. By printing the same lines over and over again through silk screens, texture builds up and the firmness of the artist’s tight lines loosens, ironically imparting a hand-made quality through the repetitive act of printing.
With contrasting palettes and variations in her motifs, Ferguson’s paintings inspire surprisingly complex emotions and states of mind. Works executed in magenta and black feel punk-ish and cool; works in teal and yellow feel sedate and self-reflective. The play of positive and negative spaces resulting from the repetitive silk screening process leads to vibrational patterns and feelings of movement when there is no actual movement. Relinquishing to these waves of buzzing energy is meditative and energizing, and it provides a reboot for any willing takers.
Elise Ferguson (b. 1964 Richmond, VA) currently lives and works in New York City. She has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe, including solo exhibitions with Halsey McKay Gallery, Romer Young Gallery, ODD ARK-LA, White Columns, 57W57 Arts. She has been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, Modern Painters, The Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine. Her work is in the public collections of Progressive Art Collection, The Cleveland Clinic, Microsoft, Google, the RISD Museum and SUNY Albany Museum.
