Intricate Subtleties

Uli Brahmst, Eugene Brodsky, Geoffrey R. Detrani,
Robin J. Miller, Mariano Del Rosario, Hilda Shen, and
Alejandra Villasmil

October 19 - December 15, 2004

Organized by Susan Hoeltzel and Patricia Cazorla

Intricate Subtleties presents the work of seven artists whose distinctly different styles involve complex, understated structures. In all there is a strategy of layering, building, fragmenting or mixing media. The work ranges from the large-scale installations of Hilda Shen, Eugene Brodsky, Uli Brahmst, and Alejandra Villasmil to the delicate, whimsical imagery of Geoffrey Detrani, and the animated narrative works of Robin Miller.

Hilda Shen's wall-like segments of enlarged fingerprints suggest human touch as well as identity—explicitly individual yet anonymous. Downloaded from the Web, these have been printed,
photographed and transferred with solvents directly to the wall. Brushed ink bleeds and gives the works a granite-like appearance. Shen's paper sculptures, balanced on stones, stitched and stained, evoke Chinese scholar's rocks and diminutive mountain forms.

Uli Brahmst's wall installation Panel Sketches, 2004, comprised of 20 oil studies, is a fragmented look at domestic life with babies, stuffed animals, household utensils, and doodles. Household objects seem edgy and surreal. Her abstracted, subliminal forms explore ". . the tension between seduction and innocence . ." Brahmst mixes oils and charcoal in a style combining painting and drawing.

Geoffrey Detrani layers materials to create subtly atmospheric botanical studies. Isolated fragments suggest landscape and the natural world. Bisected by geometric shapes, these mixed media works are as much about the picture plane as the image.

Mariano Del Rosario uses layered imagery in his work, combining found images, words, binary codes, and paint. In his series Infomix he uses this strategy to convey the hybrid nature of mass media incorporating English, Tagalog and digital language with advertising. Colonizado, a large-scale painting with a solitary wasp, bees and ants, makes a metaphoric reference to the colonization of his native Philippines. A class hierarchy is clearly present.

In the composite works of Eugene Brodsky, drawing plays a dominant role. Abstraction is played against representation and word against image in his mixed media works that combine painting, stencil transfers and multiple-planed surfaces. The image is a result
of an intricate process starting with vintage film,
travel photographs, and objects which are
photographed, digitized, drawn, rubbed, traced, and stenciled. Two works, Blackwall, 1996 and Puppet Transfer #21, 1996 are highly abstracted images based on flea market puppets. In another work, signs in Venice become the starting point.

Alejandra Villasmil's large-scale wall installation Proliferation, 2004, seems to spill down the gallery wall. Small objects, found in nature, are captured in polymer and connected to one another by a pencil drawing. The work appears to grow organically. The structure suggests systems ranging from cell growth to
galaxies. In a series of mixed media drawings, Gourds, Villasmil takes a simple repeated form and improvises with techniques and media. The experiment is
contained within a subtle line.

Robin Miller's mixed media works combine painting, drawing, and collage and explore a range of themes from the masters of modern art to icons of African American culture. The exhibition includes portraits of W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes and a quilt-like work featuring highlights of jazz in New York City. Romare's Band - Three Musicians, 1999, alludes to both Bearden and Picasso.

Lehman College Art Gallery’s exhibitions and programs are made possible through the generous support of:

Bronx Council on the Arts Cultural Venture Fund
Bronx Council on the Arts through the U.S. Small Business Administration
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
Greentree Foundation
Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro
Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation
JPMorgan Chase
Citigroup
Friends of Lehman College Art Gallery

Alejandra Villasmil
Proliferation, 2004

Eugene Brodsky
Figures/ Ciao Bear/ Boat/ Scribble, 2003