June 16, 2006
Contact: Karen Mulcahy
For Immediate Release
212.714.0044

PERI SWARTZ AND JOHN ISHERWOOD EXHIBIT AT REEVES CONTEMPORARY
A two-person exhibition of paintings by Peri Schwartz and stone vessels by Jon Isherwood opens on June 29th at Reeves Contemporary with an artists’ reception between 6-8 p.m. The exhibition runs through August 18th, 2006.

Schwartz, with a Morandi-like focus, revisits again and again the interior of her own studio and renders like compositions with a staggering freshness and vitality. Beginning with a grid and a very formal approach to perspective, she meticulous lays out the relationships among the various planes in this small space. The stunning work in the details is counterbalanced perfectly by what she leaves un-defined: the edges of the space are studies inevitably of close tonal relationships in neutrals and soft colors. The focus of the painting, is directly related to the vibrant color studies and juxtapositions of planal relationships that are in the center of the piece.

“The conflict of realism and abstraction reigns supreme in her work…. Through interaction between her subject and a grid, she explores angles and intersections that allow her to find the exact arrangement and layout to please her instincts” (J. Tolnick, University of Rhode Island, 2002). The fact that her eye is refreshed by slightest changes of light, coupled with the courage to introduce radically new coloration into a known composition, is a testament to how much her engagement is on the act of painting, the act of responding to what is in front of her.

Schwartz has exhibited her work throughout the United States, with special awards being conferred by curator Nan Rosenthal of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and by Jacquelyn Serwer of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Her work appears in the collections of the Corcoran, The British Museum, the Fogg Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the UCLA Hammer Museum, to name but a few.

Jon Isherwood is a master in working the unforgiving material of travertine, a marble known for its beautiful reflective quality and soft, subtle striations of color. In Isherwood’s hands, the stone becomes a pliable and supple material, suggesting vessels that ready to slough off their heavy covering…suggesting impermanence. Their irresistible tactile appeal is due to the meticulous working of the stone’s surface: lines, beading, and starbursts of marks, all of which suggest a slouching clay heavily worked with wooden tools. When one touches the vessels, however, the intense weight and massive presence becomes clear: and the container reads like an ancient artifact.

“I am interested in exploring the extremes of expansion,” he says. “I want to suggest that the volumes have been filled out as much as possible. I want the skin and internal pressures fused to maximum capacity.”

His work has been shown in numerous galleries in the United States, and is included in the following collections: Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, the ISC Collection in Washington, DC, the Karsl Art Center, New York Universities, Mendel Public Art Gallery in Canada, among others.