Whitehot Magazine
"The Best Art In The World"
Mary Laube
Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
By IAN ETTER June 19, 2024
Mary Laube’s paintings navigate the complex interplay of perspective and memory, crafting a nuanced dialogue that shifts between the concrete and the abstract, while subtly recontextualizing and questioning archival narratives. In her earlier works, influenced by Ellsworth Kelly’s approach to abstraction, Laube would meticulously study a single object, distilling its visual essence to guide her toward increasingly abstract forms. This process was coupled with perspectival shifts reminiscent of Giotto, resulting in compositions that were both precisely organized and intriguingly disorienting. Shadows often played a significant role in her paintings, depicted in various forms: some appeared to be cast from physical objects, while others were illusory, existing solely within the painted world. By developing this tension, Laube created a sense of distance from what was depicted, prompting viewers to engage with the layers of meaning and memory embedded in her work.
In a recent painting, "The Air Between Us" (2023-2024), an aqua-colored box decorated with rows of triangles, perches precariously on three pillars. The open box seems to offer or await an unseen presence. The pillars, painted in primary colors, are two-dimensional shapes casting shadows beneath the box. Laube explores the duality of “casting” by highlighting both the act of creation through negative space as in sculpture, and the blocking of light to cast shadows. As she notes, “The shadows in my paintings help destabilize dualities between the physical and metaphorical, truth and falsehood, and belonging and otherness.” Shadows, often considered marginal, become central in Laube's paintings, supporting the box and prompting reflection on their ephemeral nature and implied substance.
Laube's use of primary colors, while nodding to late abstraction, is deeply personal. These hues are integral to palettes found in Korean architecture and textiles across many different historical periods. Most notably, they appear in the hanbok, a traditional Korean garment she wore as a child. Born in Korea and having migrated to the US at a young age, Laube's frequent use of these colors—or their variations—threads a personal narrative throughout her latest works.
A significant turning point in Laube’s career came in 2019 during a six-week stay in South Korea. Her work has always embodied a sense of portraiture, but this experience allowed for a deeper form of self-representation. During her time there, Laube researched objects at the National Museum of Korea. Through the scholar’s program, she studied objects and artifacts, both contemporary and ancient, that profoundly influenced her subsequent exhibition, "I Will Name Myself in the Dark," at Morgan Lehman Gallery. Reflecting on this period, Laube observed that the museum, as a site of re-imagining, speaks with a nuanced voice on collective memory. She views painting as an opportunity to question the museum’s assumed authority and fold new meaning into the archive. Her nine enigmatic paintings from this exhibition traverse historical forms and fluid perspectives, articulating a complex narrative of personal and cultural memory.
In "Between Two Palms" (2023-2024), Laube orchestrates a composition by framing symmetrical, figurative images drawn from historical Korean painting and punctuated with primary colors. These figures inhabit a modernist space rendered in masked lines and muted purples and pinks, creating a palpable tension between disparate aesthetics. The framing serves to define depth within her two-dimensional world while also creating an obstruction, emphasizing that this is not a space we can occupy. This tension allows the viewer to simultaneously inhabit and feel estranged from both spaces, a duality central to Laube's work.
Laube's technique of building paintings through masked layers, a cornerstone of her practice, imparts a sculptural quality to her work. The geometric precision of "Between Two Palms" overlays a grid of overpainted shapes, revealing the methodical creation process, which often takes from three months to five years to complete. This exacting control transcends mere technique, becoming a meditative exploration of process. Her paintings, with their almost relief-like depth, resist photographic documentation, their dimensional complexity heightened by freehand renderings at the center.
These directly painted, figurative elements draw from mudang, or Korean shamanistic paintings, traditionally used to invite deities into a conversation. Laube reimagines these images into contemporary portraits, fostering a dialogue between self, object, and viewer. Through her balanced yet shifting constructs, Laube creates a space where overlapping worlds coexist, sparking a conversation that transcends time and place. This nuanced interplay of past and present, tangible and intangible, invites a deeper contemplation of personal memory and cultural intersections. Historically, mudang paintings are humble offerings, acknowledged for their varying degrees of effectiveness. Laube's work mirrors this tradition, presenting her paintings as invitations to recontextualize the archive and communal memory. In doing so, she invites viewers to engage intimately with their own histories and narratives, creating a dialogue that is both deeply personal and profoundly resonant. WM
(b. Elmendorf AFB, AK) received his MFA in Drawing and Intermedia from the University of Iowa. His work has been featured in group shows at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, The Wassaic Project, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Spring/Break Art Show, and Collar Works, with solo exhibitions at Practice Gallery and Legion Arts. Etter’s drawings were highlighted in the Spring Issue 17 2020 of Art Maze Mag and included in registries such as White Columns, TSA Brooklyn, and Ortega y Gasset. His curatorial projects have been exhibited at Spring/Break Art Show and featured on ARTNews.com. Etter has also contributed writings to catalogs published by the University of California and Locate Arts.