ART CITIES:N.York- Sarah Bednarek & Leigh Ruple

Morgan Lehman Gallery in its Summer exhibition, presents works of two women artists: Leigh Ruple and Sarah Bednarek. Leigh Ruple’s interest is the power of images as an illusion. With her apparently soft-looking visuals, she explores the conscious and unconscious relationships that people may live with images. Sarah Bednarek’s work in sculpture and drawing addresses ideas of the finite and the infinite, of the perception and possibility of a mathematical and geometric ideal.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Morgan Lehman Gallery Archive

Leigh Ruple creates large-scale paintings that use color to create energy and define space while also addressing physical and psychological situations of isolation and reclusion. Isolation seems particularly potent in these works, as the lone figures simultaneously emerge from and are concealed by the lush environments they exist in. Though the organic shapes seem to morph into human form, they ultimately serve as disruptions to the viewer, blocking our view and nestling the figure more densely into a space of introspection. Sarah Bednarek’s work stems from hallucinogenic experiences while under the influence of “Death and morphine”. Bednarek was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, and these mystical visions she had during treatment transported her to a world of perfect geometry and form. This perfection forced Bednarek to question her mind and space, her imagination versus reality. Her sculptures are an attempt to externalize the internal ideal, while also showing the value of real objects, created by the human hand. Bednarek’s objects are “intensely” and obviously handmade,  they approach the ideal but are prevented from achieving it due to their human origin.

Info: Morgan Lehman Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, New York, Duration: 23/6-29/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.morganlehmangallery.com