Winter Salon: Joseph Adolphe, Miriam Cabessa, Daniel Maidman & Timothy Wilson

JOSEPH ADOLPHE, Ravenna 3, 2012, Oil on paper
29 1/2 × 22 2/5 in

By WM STAFF, JAN. 2016

Jenn Singer Gallery, a tiny space off Gramercy Park, is using its offbeat scale to provide gallery-goers with an intimate experience of contemporary drawing and painting. Winter Salon, the current group exhibition, showcases one to three works from each of four artists: figurative expressionist Joseph Adolphe, Miriam Cabessa working in a gleaming abstract mode, Daniel Maidman’s classically lyrical nudes, and the moody and almost totally deconstructed interior spaces of Timothy Wilson.

Describing his seven-part painting Peccata Mortalia, the centerpiece of the show, Wilson comments: “Inspired by the concept of Seven Sins, each panel was started on location at various barns in states of disrepair. I felt pulling from structures once used as productive spaces would add a sense of somber eloquence which the presence of dynamic Human Figures sometimes tends to obstruct. I wanted the paintings to be more about mood than an illustrated theme.”

In contrast, Adolphe remarks, “Generally I’m drawn to subject matter that allows me to consider more universal themes, but working from the figure from life is really where all of my conceptual notions spring from. Confronting the human form brings me into immediate contact with the physical world around me.”

Daniel Maidman, Syrie, 2016, Oil on canvas 24 × 24 in

Maidman, also creating work derived from the figure, describes his painting Syrie: “I’m interested lately in weaving the figure into a strong graphic design. I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of my fidelity to observed forms in order to foreground a more stylized compositional idea. Hopefully I can preserve the specificity and emotion of my model, and have that infuse the visual idea and give it life.”

As selected and arranged by Jenn Singer, the works from these four artists confront and respond to one another, taking up and developing formal and psychological motifs. Wilson and Cabessa naturally align in their use of high contrast blacks, golds, and whites, whereas Adolphe and Maidman gravitate toward a narrower range of mid-tones. Paralleling this is the abstraction of Wilson’s and Cabessa’s work, as opposed to Adolphe’s and Maidman’s figurative emphasis. Cabessa and Adolphe work with delicacy and soft transitions, while Wilson and Maidman lean on the hard line and shape to more frontally attack the making of an image. Adolphe’s nudes are distanced and gentle; Maidman’s are aggressively sensual and situated closer to the picture plane. Cabessa is in no hurry to complete her composition, while Wilson’s work is intense and almost frenzied. Presented in the narrow confines of Jenn Singer Gallery, these pieces open a wide panorama of artistic possibilities, and a taste of the broad range of emotions art is capable of evoking. WM

Jenn Singer Gallery
72 Irving Place

New York, NY 10003

www.jennsingergallery.com
info@jennsingergallery.com
T. 917.722.6119
Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm

Appointments suggested.
Winter Salon: Joseph Adolphe, Miriam Cabessa, Daniel Maidman & Timothy Wilson
OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, January 30th, Noon - 6pm
ON VIEW: January 26 - February 17, 2016