Mary Negro: Unfolding
On view: December 3, 2020 –

On view via Instagram, Artsy and 1st Dibs

December 3, 2020 –

Ground Floor Gallery is delighted to present the latest solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist, Mary Negro. Active in the Gowanus, Brooklyn art scene for years, Negro typically works in abstraction, blends intuition, the quotidian and current events into a fluid composition that, at times, connotes collage. We are thrilled by debut this new body of work that is specific to our peculiar time and place in winter 2020.

Please see the artist’s statement about the work and join us each week as the exhibition unfolds incrementally with a close look at individual works in this new series.

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This body of work unexpectedly emerged in the spring of 2020. I temporarily left Brooklyn beginning mid-March as New York locked-down to flatten the coronavirus curve. As I settled into a new environment and lifestyle, drawing became a necessary outlet unlike any time before. While I felt compelled to physically draw—to just move my hands and pencils across the paper—I also felt completely disconnected from my previous work. I decided to ignore older projects and just draw purely from instinct; to work as hard as I could to trust my eyes and my hands and be present with each piece above all else. With the harsh realities of covid unfolding across the globe, I found it very easy to draw with no expectations or stress. It was impossible to worry about the outcome of an image with the world in such flux. I only wish I obtained this mindset sooner.

Once committed to this approach, a new aesthetic quickly materialized. I do not have a premeditated image in mind when developing these works. Rather, I begin each drawing with a quick gesture in pencil. From there, I simply look and attempt to capture interesting form and light. As evidenced in the mark-making, some outcomes crystalize clearly and quickly, while other images undergo multiple transformations before arriving at a conclusion. The language is abstract but often what I see upon completion are ambiguous landscapes unencumbered by any realistic sense of dimension. While these works are not about covid per se, I have to recognize the significance of covid for bringing about the fundamental changes to my day-to-day life that allowed these images to exist.

Mary Negro

Untitled, 2020

Pencil on paper

12.25 x 9 inches