Gina Occhiogrosso in Lay of the Land

Gina Occhiogrosso, "Nobody wants to be here, and nobody wants to leave", 22 x 30", Flashe and gouache on paper, 2012

The exhibition Lay of the Land, on view through February 20, 2014, deals with landscapes as they are perceived and reconstructed by artists. Each artist in the show focuses on a different aspect of this reconstruction. 

In mixed media paintings by Gina Occhiogrosso, the landscape is not quite settled. The viewer is presented with the materials that may one day come to rest as an observable landscape, but at present the shapes and colors must be solved like a puzzle before recognition can take place. The various trajectories of abstracted forms become a shared concern for viewers who may hope for resolution, while suspecting that the perceived tension carries a weightier message.

Extreme Measures, 11x14, oil on canvas, 2013

The artist in her own words:

"My work captures flux, slippage or time-suspended through the liquid and flexible medium of paint. The fragments interact to suggest movement, unease, or tremor. The land in these pictures is not quite finished being transformed, not in its image, nor in its process.

We can wait for the next one, 12x16, oil on canvas, 2013

It is an insecure space from my childhood and a cautionary tale for our future. Sources for the work are images found on websites that record natural disaster related damage such as FEMA (tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes). Elements dangle, merge and are transformed. The work is about our changing domestic landscape as well as our political and economic landscape, and how these forces have worked to destroy each other.

Through exploration of extreme weather events and their resulting catastrophic landscapes, more recent work is distilled into suggestive or abstracted spaces. The materiality of paint becomes reinforced by the use of a palette knife, and other much more physical practices.

Color has become more acidic, referring to an otherworldly, prophetic landscape. While I am interested in the world and it’s economic and environmental drift, I am also interested in unique personal experiences where life becomes untethered, and spaces become increasingly psychological."

- Gina Occhiogrosso

Lay of the Land

Left to Right: Matthew Albanese, Giovanna Cecchetti, Wes Sherman

Lay of the Land
January 10 - February 20, 2014

Join us in the Mikhail Zakin Gallery for an exhibition of contemporary landscapes. Exhibitions in our gallery are designed to make contemporary art an accessible part of the cultural landscape. Lay of the Land begins with a traditional concept and pushes the boundaries of the tradition for a group exhibition of distinctly contemporary work. It is our hope that students and visitors will come away with an expanded definition of landscape and to be inspired to push the limits of their own work.

Left to Right: Gina Occhiogrosso, Wes Sherman, Matthew Albanese

Works in Lay of the Land expound upon the human experience of landscape. A variety of mediums are presented in expression of the unique vantage points of the artists involved.  Some works have a direct relationship to observed landscapes, with deviations of varying magnitude based in personal expression. Other representations have passed through the prism of the artists’ experience, resulting in landscapes, impressed or fragmented by perception, and compiled for viewing.  Seen together, the works are a celebration of the multitude of ways to faithfully represent the lay of the land.