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Gallery |
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Chicago Tribune,
June 13, 2008, sec.7, C, pg. 22 |
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"Through a Purple Patch: New Paintings" @ Zg Gallery |
Standing in front of her gigantic, panoramic “Through a Purple Patch"
artist Martina Nehrling ponders on how to describe her work and how it
comes to be. She notes the experiential quality of the titular piece
of her new exhibition opening tonight, spanning 21 feet across the
south wall of the Zg Gallery, three canvases combined. Stretched so
far as to fit on her studio wall with two inches to spare, the
painting stood sentry as she created the other works of the
exhibition, eight in all. |
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The
triune "Purple Patch" is perhaps the capstone of her last year of
work.” Purple Patch" is partly an homage to Monet and his "Water
Lilies" a series that deeply resonated with Nehrling, one that she
sought out at the
Museum
of Modern Art in New York. She felt an affinity with the Impressionist
master in his later period, as his brushwork grew more self-evident.
Nehrling's stroke is incredibly prominent in her wonderfully chaotic
work. Her colors bounce around the on-canvas tumult, reds and green
rising out of blues and oranges -- a diffuse, dynamic and interactive
event.
"It's a reflection of my part of the world, the busy urban setting,
the routine of over stimulus" she says. Nehrling, quick to add,
"that's just my personal take, I can't speak for everyone" is a young,
growing artist with an idiosyncratic style. |
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Nehrling
describes the first (chronological) piece of the show as having three
layers of shape: first the discrete form, like a shadow of an ice
cream cone; and then the under-paint, loose geometrics within the
discrete; and finally her signature staccato stroke populating the
painting, alternately cacophony and symphony. - Drake |
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University of Chicago
Magazine,
June 2006, pgs. 50 - 51, 54
Chicago Tribune,
June 2, 2006, C sec.7, pg. 27
Chicago Reader,
September 24, 2004, vol. 33, No. 52, Sec. 2, pg. 25
Where Chicago,
September, 2004, pg. 20
Art & Antiques,
September, 2004, vol. 27, No. 8, pg. 26
Architectural Digest,
August, 2004, vol. 61, No. 8, pgs. 50 & 71
Chicago Reader,
Friday, February 6, 2004, Vol. 33, No. 19, Sec. 2, pg. 26
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