January 2, 2007
Contact: Karen Mulcahy
For Immediate Release

RAY RUSECKAS, SIBYLLE PASCHE OPEN SHOW AT REEVES CONTEMPORARY
Ray Ruseckas, a pastel artist whose works reflect the New England landscape, opens a show of new works on January 18th at Reeves Contemporary on West 24th Street. In the project space, the gallery features the sculptures of Sibylle Pasche, a Swiss artist who works primarily in marble. The reception is Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m., and the exhibitions will run through February 17th, 2007.

Ruseckas’ work focuses on the Connecticut River Valley, his home region, where he carefully regards the moving weather, the subdued palette of the riverway and adjacent fields, and the shifting hues of the foliage. The melancholic tones are evocative of this northern clime, but also recall the nostalgic landscapes of times past. The subtle mystery of each piece relates directly back to the landscape as he experiences it, as he works plein air on the hillsides adjacent to the river.

Working the grains of the dry chalk heavily into the fibrous hand-made papers, Ruseckas tends to layer the pastels to achieve the rich, tonal quality of his compositions. Often, the surfaces read like oil paint, due to the density of the layering. The resulting tactile quality and surface texture add dimension to the work.

Ruseckas lives and works in southern Vermont, and has shown his pastels consistently in New York and New England, including the Work on Paper Fair at the Park Avenue Armory and the Art of the Twentieth Century.

Sibylle Pasche is a Swiss artist who is showing her work for the first time in New York. Her work is an inquiry into the purity of form, as rendered in Italian marble. This notable material—white, grey, black, with fine or swollen veins; porous, light brown travertine or grayish black dry slate—has fascinated artists for centuries, challenging them to evoke fluid expression despite the stone’s gravity and power. Marble is famous for the purity of its finely polished surfaces: Pasche’s rounded volumes, however, frequently involve the inclusion of raw, unpolished material as she explores the interior as well as shape the exterior form.

The works are often spherical, with imaginative and repetitive penetrations into the surface, openings in the form of indentations, hollows, incisions and cracks. The interior of the stone is hinted at, but barely revealed. The apertures are beautifully textured, and the surfaces pristine. Often the works evoke organic creatures, such as sea urchins or improbable shells; other works are impossibly beautiful carbuncles or reverse geodes. The sensuality of her sculptures is brought to a high pitch by the enduring beauty of the stone she employs.

Pasche studied at the Liceo Artistico in Zurich, where she also has taught sculpture. She maintains a studio in Switzerland and one in Carrara, Italy, where her work was shown in the XII International Biennale of Sculpture. Her work has been shown rarely in the United States; but in numerous venues in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan.