Intersections
Galleri Urbane is pleased to announce our 7th annual group show, Intersections, an exhibition featuring the work of Gail Peter Borden, Peter Frederiksen, Chase Barney and Benjamin Terry, and welcoming Amelia Briggs, Karen Navarro for the first time. This show is composed of recent works from the artists which examine intersections of culture and identity along with themes of convergent artistic elements and mediums.
Artist Benjamin Terry returns with his effervescent geometric paintings, which fit together like jigsaw puzzles. To exude his 80’s attitude in style, Terry utilizes punches of colors, splatters of paint, and bold gradients. In a stylistic hangover from his previous work, he layers wood pieces over paper, divulging from entirely wood works. The pieces are simple at first glance but reveal themselves as carefully planned abstracted scenes. Contrasting with a sleek style are artist and architect Gail Peter Borden’s signature color blocked resin cast acrylic panels. With vibrant monochromatic and complementary colors, the works can be tessellated together in a multitude of variations and explore illusions of depth through color.
Gallery artist Peter Frederiksen contributes his bold cartoon-like embroidery work on linen, featuring What is it (2022). Appropriating his traditionally feminine medium into soft sculptures, Frederiksen encourages interpretations of his abstract, humorous works by inserting messages into his pieces.
Highlights from new artists to the gallery include Chase Barney, exhibiting ceramic work that “blends queer joy and religious melancholy.” His pieces are scenes of embraced animals and euphemistic images, such as in Mountain Meadow (2021). Filled with symbolic contradictions, Barney raises questions of identity in his ambitious work. Stylized relief scenes use exaggerated and understated scales, relying on atmosphere created through iconography. Artist Karen Navarro continues the exploration of identity in deconstructed portraits of immigrants and individuals victimized by colonialism. The Argentinian-born artist, in her pursuit to understand selfhood in modern society, breaks the boundaries of traditional portraiture.
Reminiscent of childlike wonder and imagination, Nashville-based multidisciplinary artist Amelia Briggs creates animated, three-dimensional pieces. Pollyanna (2022), composed of panel, reclaimed fibers, latex, and oil, manipulates materials to create a puffy figure with meandering snake-like lines of gradient colors swirling out from the center. Her wonderland-like figures appear to float in space, further challenging the understood reality they exist in.
Ensemble pieces fusing into a larger narrative, Intersections is fortunate to create a larger story of power in and through harmonious dichotomies. This show reveals layers of individuality and questions of elements and materials, challenging tradition. This colorful collection of artists brings forth various techniques and concepts to present Galleri Urbane’s identity.