Nancy Campbell

SUDDEN SMILE QUICKLY GONE

December 1, 2016 – January 22, 2017

Gallery Closed: Dec. 19 – Jan. 4

Reception: December 8, 2016, 6-8 PM

A solo exhibition of screenprints entitled “Nancy Campbell: Sudden Smile Quickly Gone” will be presented in The Library at CENTRAL BOOKING, 21 Ludlow Street, New York NY 10002 from December 1, 2016 to January 22, 2017. A reception will be held on December 8, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

According to the artist: I strive to evoke an Eastern sense of balance between fragility and strength by using a system of highly structured intricate abstraction. Despite exacting and often tedious methods I work for a spontaneous result that inhabits an ambiguous realm between the visible and the invisible, the logical and the intuitive, the representational and the abstract.

The measured, stage-by-stage process of making a print allows me to adjust and fine-tune my images over a long period of time. In contrast to the slow pace of my printing process I simultaneously work out ideas quickly using collage and drawing. Recycled information from earlier works generates new outcomes as I layer and weave together disparate ideas.

Implicit in my work are stories waiting to be told. I find conceptual parallels and formal connections to Japanese narrative picture scrolls that I have ardently studied in museum collections and in reproduction. Their stories are often evasive, subtle, and fleeting. Images press out toward the frame as secrets hover and stories unfold sequentially over time. A severity underlies some of the scroll imagery but it dissolves into luminous tracings, rhythms, and lightness. Linear structures always remain clear and forceful. Echoed in my work is a continuous play of opposites – often found at the heart of Japanese aesthetics.”

Works in The Library are curated by Diana Wege as part of CENTRAL BOOKING’s diverse programming of exhibitions, lectures, meetups, panel discussions, performances, readings, screenings, showcases or workshops.