FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRISM CONTEMPORARY
1048 W Fulton Market, Chicago IL 60607
312-243-4885
e: amy@prismcontemporary.com
Contact: Amy Hajdas

Synopsis:
Singular Forms : Trans-Minimalist Sculpture

Opening Reception:
Public Reception: Saturay, April 5, 2008, 5 - 8:00 p.m.
Media Preview: Friday, April 4, 1 - 4 p.m.

Exhibition runs through May 24, 2008
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm, or by appointment.

Image Inquiries: 312-243-4885 or amy@prismcontemporary.com

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This April, coincident with ArtChicago, PRISM Contemporary is pleased to present a group exhibition of sculpture exploring the minimalist tradition, articulating a careful meditation on line and form, space and mass.

In visual art, post-minimalism refers specifically to the work of those artists who utilize minimalism either as an aesthetic or conceptual reference point. The term refers less to a particular movement than an artistic tendency. In this exhibition, we use the term Trans-Minimalist to examine that impulse toward reduction, restraint, and lucidity.

The artists featured here sought to define the essence of form and/or color, stripping away decoration, narrative and illusion with these works. Many of the tenets central to minimalism are manifest here - planar or curved surfaces in strict relation to the whole; each object serves its purpose by carrying the exact message of itself and nothing more. With this group exhibition, however, we’ve taken curatorial liberty to include a wide, accessible array of sculpture to illustrate the breadth of the Minimalist continuum.

A list of the participating artists and brief descriptions, follows:

BRIAN USHER "Inevibility of Agnus" 78.75 x 37.5 x 6", Cast Glass CLICK TO DOWN LOAD A PRINT RES IMAGE	LISA CAHILL "Catching Light" 26.5 x 20" kiln-formed/carved Glass CLICK TO DOWN LOAD A PRINT RES IMAGE	CLAUDIA BORELLA "Waitakere Horizon" 18.5 x 38 x 1", Fused and carved Glass CLICK TO DOWN LOAD A PRINT RES IMAGE

Brian Usher is a celebrated American expat sculptor now working from Paris and the Czech Republic. His return to the US market at SOFA Chicago last November was marked by widespread excitement; he will have at least 5 works in the exhibition. Usher’s works are specifically about “seeing”, not looking, and “drawing” precise moments in time.

For Martin Rosol, whose history of making dates back to Communist Czechoslovakia,
the form is the only significance. Descriptions of his work have ranged alternately from abstract to architectural, but the pieces in this exhibition are truly minimal, both in form and use of color.

Trinh Nguyen, another refugee from Communism, uses modular elements, which are then assembled into forceful, dynamic forms to create visual rhythms and repetitions – similar in practice to Donald Judd, though working with color saturation much like Rothko.

Another of the represented sculptors who works with color in a pure sense, like Rothko, is Henry L. Hillman Jr. His graduated stacks embrace a minimalist approach to the overall aesthetics without sacrificing the complexity of the material and process.

Proving that minimal need not mean hard-edged, Alex Fekete’s works exemplify grace and elegance. Objects he creates can be characterized by simple, almost graphic representations of space and volumes. In Alex’s sculpture, with their deliberate absence of color, it’s the purity of form buttressed by the power of negative space that takes center stage.

Claudia Borella’s (New Zealand) panels are perhaps most rooted in geometric abstraction. Alternately utilizing and ignoring color, it is the repetition of form and texture that provides a continuum in which to place her two featured works.

While all of the featured sculptors’ works may be looked at as paintings rendered 360 degrees, this is especially true of the
remaining 3 artists:

Benjamin Sewell, from Australia, uses a minimal approach to color, interplayed with subtle organic curved forms. The work is treated with a rich texture of carvings on the surface of the form. The objects have their own sense of space and stillness, conveying the contemplative nature of the work, and the artist to the viewer.

Lisa Cahill, another Australian, also treats her panels as paintings – forms capturing a moment and releasing light.

Finally, American Sean O’Neill works pure circular forms as his canvas, sculpting only with shading and contrast

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PRISM Contemporary is located at 1048 W Fulton Market in Chicago.
Regular hours are 10am – 6pm, Tuesdays through Saturdays.
For more information, please call 312-243-4885 or visit our website: www.prismcontemporay.com