EXHIBITION UNCONDITIONAL PAINT CONNECTS TO THE FACULTY LOCKOUT PROTESTS AT LIU BROOKLYN THIS FALL
The paintings in Unconditional Paint are part of my body of work called The Revolution Will Be Painted which synthesizes my experiences participating in collaborative publication and performance projects outside my studio with my solo re-investigation of the tradition of painting over the last two years in my studio in Mattituck, NY. The title Unconditional Paint highlights one lesson I learned working in my studio on these paintings. I learned that it is necessary for a child or dependent to be emotionally supported by a parent or guardian in order to be able thrive as an individual. My paintings provide the symbolic backdrop for my audience to dwell in this realm of protected personal agency.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to show this work in the Salena Gallery on an urban, university campus and share it with a new audience. Little did I know that after installing the work on August 30th that the LIU Brooklyn administration would choose to take the unprecedented action of locking out their faculty. This action disrupted the first 12 days of the new fall semester for both teachers and students. I feel that the works inUnconditional Paint celebrates the importance of taking a personal stand, as the LIU Brooklyn community demonstrated, especially when the school's governing body did not act responsibly.
EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION
LIU Brooklyn Salena Gallery is pleased to open the 2016 fall season with Unconditional Paint, an installation of abstract paintings by Anne Sherwood Pundyk. For the exhibition five, 7- by 8-foot-high paintings on unstretched canvas line the gallery’s monumental convex wall. “Lyrical, at once absorbing and theatrical canvases patched together from separate panels and each seven feet tall by a little more than that in width, hang unstretched like baronial tapestries,” wrote David Cohen in a review of Pundyk’s recent work in artcritical. The long curve of the exhibition surface echos the architecture of the auditorium adjacent to the gallery, which is situated one floor below the University’s library. This location is significant for the artist, “I have found that bringing together the written word, the unique object and the live event, are all intrinsic to my quest to make credible paintings.” The nearby performance and study spaces thus give meaningful context to Pundyk’s installation.Hyperallergic’s Rodney Seph recently wrote of Pundyk’s work, “[Her] painting is both intuitive and remarkably self-aware…saying to the universe, ‘I’m here.’” Through its public setting, theatrical placement and formal vocabulary, the installation becomes a backdrop enveloping gallery goers as they engage with the work.