Winter Salon-Works on Paper

Winter Salon-Works on Paper

at Björn Ressle Gallery in New York
by D. Dominick Lombardi

Björn Ressle has had galleries in Stockholm, Bogota and now New York, specializing in abstract, minimal and conceptual art. When I asked him the theme of his current exhibition, he responded “nepotism with a knowing smile. I like that, the straightforward-ness, the honesty and when you look at the roster of names, which in part include Carl Andre, George Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, George Condo, Neil Jenney, Alex Katz, Sol Lewitt, DENNIS Oppenheim, Dorothea Rockburne, Robert Ryman and Richard Tuttle you can’t help but be impressed. In the exhibition, which is displayed salon style throughout a relatively small gallery space that happens to have 13 foot high walls, you can easily see how full a life this gallerist/curator has lead.

MARY HRBACEK

finds her muse in tree forms, most often gnarly, rugged ones that seem ages old and wise. Her approach is to render then almost in silhouette, leaving small touches of subtle light and line to bring out the twists and turns in the form. With this comes a personification, a liveliness of the subject that defies the two-dimensionality of the media. Even in the areas of paper left untouched, Hrbacek reaches great aesthetic strength and magic.