Showcasing a new rising talent, Quogue Gallery will exhibit dynamic paintings, wall reliefs and sculpture in “Liz Sloan: Ki Path” from August 12 through September 29, 2016. An artist’s reception will be held at the gallery at 44 Quogue Street on Saturday, August 13, from 4 to 7 p.m.
The title of the exhibition, “Ki Path,” was chosen by the artist to tap into the Japanese notion of Ki, the active life spirit that she believes imbues the work with its elemental energy. Sloan’s aesthetic evokes a melding of this Asian concept of energy with touchstones of European and American modernism, brought into harmony through the artist’s personal touch as a painter and as a master of design.
A hallmark of Sloan’s technique is her ability to work in three dimensions, drawing on her grasp of fine art, design, and construction principles. Her long-term commitment to painting is complemented and informed by the techniques of collage and assemblage, all unified by the artist’s thematic use of the circle.
As the artist explained in a statement: “I circle back to my roots as an oil painter and designer to create collage and 3D paintings using both found objects and pre-designed Lucite, aluminum, wood and paper pieces. Painting with more than oils reflects how many resources and services are available to an artist today and how viable all of them are. In my work you'll find passages where I intersect a drafted pencil line with a paper cutout that's been layered with an expressive hand-drawn oil pastel gesture. In my 3D work I combine pencil lines with pre-designed Lucite circles that have been manipulated with paper and paint and are suspended away from the traditional picture plane.”
Liz Sloan was born in Syracuse and grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and New York City. A fine arts major at Colgate University, after graduation she became a professional jewelry and interior designer. In addition to her time at the drafting table, she has been painting steadily and for more than 35 years has studied under the master of collage at the Art Students League, Bruce Dorfman. She lives and works in New York and Southampton.
The exhibition presents an in-depth experience of Sloan’s serial sensibility through drawings, collage, wall reliefs and sculpture, many of which share motifs and signature tones, including a strong, secure blue that recurs in many works, as well as the basic geometry.
As Sloan has written: “My works are best viewed in sequence as one is born from the one that came before it, as if a journey has been taken. Common throughout, however, you'll find circles of all sizes and my hand, which is a circular motion, both used intentionally to create the essence of each piece.”
There is a metaphysical resonance to the artist’s notion of channeling the Ki or life energy so essential to an understanding of Zen (as well as many other Asian philosophies). A recent trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara inspired many of the works in the show.
“My work aims to recreate kinetic energy; to move; to resonate,” Sloan has noted. “The diverse use of circles is meant to take the angularity out of life and to give one a visual of what Kinetic Kindness feels like. It's the Elemental energy that's within all of us.”