Abby Leigh: Difference between revisions

 

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==Work==

==Work==

Abby Leigh’s work consistently deals with the same themes: the relationship of order and randomness; microcosm and macrocosm; and with what lies beneath the surface, both literally and conceptually. She is deeply engaged with and curious about her materials, which are often unusual, such as drawing with smoke, axes, or sledgehammers.{{Cite web|last=Micchelli|first=Thomas|date=2009-10-05|title=Abby Leigh WITH THOMAS MICCHELLI|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2009/10/art/abby-leigh-with-thomas-micchelli|access-date=2021-09-27|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}} Her most recent sledgehammer series is the culmination of previous investigations in materials, subject matter, and technique. “Leigh’s process begins by beating Dibond aluminum panels with a sledgehammer, covering them with dents and dings. From there she layers oil paint, pigment and wax in a range of near monochromes—pinks, blues, and blacks.”{{Cite web|date=2018-09-20|title=Hammering out the Details of Abby Leigh’s New Painting Show|url=https://www.culturedmag.com/abby-leigh/|access-date=2021-09-27|website=Cultured Magazine|language=en-US}} Leigh then scratches the battered surface of the aluminum in a technique that draws comparisons to automatism. “Sometimes she paints over and into these forms. Other colors are revealed as she cuts into the glittering metal, which is left exposed.”

Abby Leigh’s work consistently deals with the same themes: the relationship of order and randomness; microcosm and macrocosm; and with what lies beneath the surface, both literally and conceptually. She is deeply engaged with and curious about her materials, which are often unusual, such as drawing with smoke, axes, or sledgehammers.{{Cite web|last=Micchelli|first=Thomas|date=2009-10-05|title=Abby Leigh WITH THOMAS MICCHELLI|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2009/10/art/abby-leigh-with-thomas-micchelli|access-date=2021-09-27|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}} Her most recent sledgehammer series is the culmination of previous investigations in materials, subject matter, and technique. process begins by beating Dibond aluminum panels with a sledgehammer, covering them with dents and dings. From there she layers oil paint, pigment and wax in a range of near monochromes—pinks, blues, and blacks.{{Cite web|date=2018-09-20|title=Hammering out the Details of Abby Leigh’s New Painting Show|url=https://www.culturedmag.com/abby-leigh/|access-date=2021-09-27|website=Cultured Magazine|language=en-US}} Leigh then scratches the battered surface of the aluminum in a technique that draws comparisons to automatism. she paints over and into these forms. Other colors are revealed as she cuts into the glittering metal, which is left exposed.

The labor-intensive process produces visual and tactile variation in each piece.{{Cite web|last=Adam|first=Alfred Mac|date=2018-10-03|title=Abby Leigh: Sledgehammer Paintings|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2018/10/artseen/Abby-Leigh-Sledgehammer-Paintings|access-date=2021-09-27|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}} The resulting paintings “beg for free association,” resembling everything from bacteria floating in water or graffiti, and have been compared to Yayoi Kusama’s engagement of the infinite and the “visionary abstraction of Arthur Dove.”{{Cite journal|last=Rosenberg|first=Susan|date=2008|title=Abby Leigh at Betty Cuningham|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/597f7113d7bdce26d9de7ff1/t/614281752979d55e83a6f013/1631748469071/ArtinAmerica.jpg|journal=Art in America}}

The labor-intensive process produces visual and tactile variation in each piece.{{Cite web|last=Adam|first=Alfred Mac|date=2018-10-03|title=Abby Leigh: Sledgehammer Paintings|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2018/10/artseen/Abby-Leigh-Sledgehammer-Paintings|access-date=2021-09-27|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}} The resulting paintings for free association, resembling everything from bacteria floating in water or graffiti, and have been compared to Yayoi engagement of the infinite and the abstraction of Arthur Dove.{{Cite journal|last=Rosenberg|first=Susan|date=2008|title=Abby Leigh at Betty Cuningham|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/597f7113d7bdce26d9de7ff1/t/614281752979d55e83a6f013/1631748469071/ArtinAmerica.jpg|journal=Art in America}}

In a review of Leigh’s sledgehammer paintings, Alfred Mac Adams writes: “unlike banal abstraction this work takes the viewer back to the erotics of landscape, the fetishizing of nature that transforms mountains and trees into voluptuous bodies. Flesh makes us acknowledge the sexual charge latent in traditional landscape painting and in this brilliant reinvention of it. Abby Leigh has created a brave new world for abstract painting.”

In a review of sledgehammer paintings, Alfred Mac Adams writes: …