Mary Ann Strandell: Floating Steps
August 22 - October 25, 2020
JY&A Juliette Yuan & Associates
163 92nd Street #4
New York, New York 10128
Mary Ann Strandell: Floating Steps
August 22, 2020 - October 25, 2020
J. Yuan & Associates llc is pleased to present Floating Steps, a solo exhibition by American artist Mary Ann Strandell.
Strandell is known for her lush paintings of architectural structures and nature subjects, at times combined with objects of cultural trade. Presented as a virtual exhibition the selection of works in Floating Steps reveal the fluid and mediated configuration of observed reality, with a certain fidelity to appearance. The liminal presence of the these painted environs, both the interior and city-scape views, connote a sense of time with floating spatial elements that embody the pictorial plane. Experiencing these works in the rising relevance of today against the backdrop of quarantine as a new normal, posses a silent omnipotence.
Strandell frequently denotes architectural wonders in New York City, including the three-story, glass staircase in the Apple Store, Chelsea; and construction sites, including Hudson Yards development project on the west side of Manhattan. Her vibrant and dynamic representation of these locations reminds one of the pensive beauty of empty cityscapes while simultaneously arouses contemplative re-imagination of one’s experiences related to the place. Her painting, “56 Leonard Street” depicts the shell construction of Herzog & de Meuron’s Tribeca masterwork. It’s off-kilter design painted with Strandell’s loose brushwork simultaneously poses a visual dialectic of a downward dissolution or an upward building in process. In her rendering of modern living rooms, the mid-century sunken coach, called a conversation pit, collides with icons from other eras and cultures—such as a sputnik lamp, 15th-century Chinese vase, cocktails, and kitsch porcelain, alluding to the long-existed, complex process of global exchange. By engineering her paintings and drawings into 3D lenticular media, Strandell disassembles integral spatial concerns down to a cumulation of transitory imageries, interweaving multiple layers of visual narratives. The lenticular lens optical surface becomes an allegory of the computer screen, where hand adjustment is replaced by physical vantage points, activated by the viewer where meanings coalesce and converge. -Curator Sheryl Wu
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| Mary Ann Strandell, "56 Leonard", 48x36", 2019 |
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| Mary Ann Strandell, "Scope / Royal", 60x48", 2015 |
