February 4 - 25, 2016

Recent Work: Betty McGeehan, Susan Newmark & Sumayyah Samaha
Paintings: Helen Iranyi
On The Wall: Olivia Beens

Carter Burden Gallery presents three new exhibitions: Recent Work in the east gallery featuring Betty McGeehan, Susan Newmark and Sumayyah Samaha, Paintings in the west gallery featuring Helen Iranyi and On the Wall featuring Olivia Beens. The reception will be held February 4, 2016 from 6 – 8 PM. The exhibition runs from February 4th through 25th at 548 West 28th Street in New York City. The Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-6pm.

Betty McGeehan

In Recent Work, Betty McGeehan presents sculptures and wall pieces for her first exhibition at Carter Burden Gallery. McGeehan’s work draws attention to the natural beauty that she sees in wood. She sculpts the wood and adds materials to highlight the colors, growth patterns, and embedded history. The addition of the copper, glass, brass and steel are, at times, subtle and initially overlooked. The carefully constructed compositions are elegantly simple, allowing the inherent beauty of the materials to stand out. McGeehan’s work with wood has been profoundly influenced by her awareness of deforestation around the world. The juxtaposition of the natural wood with the human-manipulated objects is a metaphor for the struggle between man and nature.

Susan Newmark

In Recent Work, Susan Newmark presents collages for her first show at Carter Burden Gallery. The collages on view are Newmark’s visual interpretations of selected Mary Oliver poems such as Roses Late Summer Marango and The Hummingbird Pauses on the Trumpet Vine. The compositions are dense and complex with a layering process that involves painting, sanding and re-sanding. Newmark works in a planned but improvisational approach that invites discovery as reality is peeled away from surface appearance. The work is an inquiry into her identity as a woman through images of traditional domesticity – jewelry, mirrors, glass, flowers, wall paper, wrapping paper, lace, collectibles, family portraits – in contrast with issues of sexuality and gender communicated by society, the media and lived experience.

Sumayyah Samaha

In Recent Work, Sumayyah Samaha presents abstract paintings for her first show at Carter Burden Gallery. The paintings in the exhibition represent two consecutive bodies of recent work. Two of the paintings depict floating masses of colors that intentionally do not fill the entire canvas. Samaha created these paintings in response to working with monoprints, where the paper is traditionally left blank around the edges. The hovering forms are dream-like mixtures of rich colors made of oil sticks and oil paint. Samaha’s other paintings in the exhibition are playful shapes and colors connected by lines. The artist’s stream of consciousness determines the composition. Working on paper is a vehicle for her to move to new ideas and to a new body of work. Over the years, she built an extensive vocabulary with which she weaves her visual story.

Helen Iranyi

In Paintings, Helen Iranyi presents five large acrylic paintings for her first show at Carter Burden Gallery. Helen Iranyi’s paintings are immersive explorations of color. Iranyi paints on unprimed canvas in washes. The washes build up to overlap and blend to create rich luscious colors. Iranyi’s unique compositions present different stories and environments. Three of the paintings depict bands of layered colors that intersect. Iranyi’s skilled use of color pushes and pulls the viewer, creating a sense of space. The overwhelming intensity of colors becomes whimsically optimistic.

Olivia Beens

Olivia Beens' large-scale installation will be featured in the gallery space On the Wall. The artist is presenting an installation comprised of a painted scroll with collaged photographs and text. The work is an homage to the artist’s mother. Beens painted the scroll on an Amtrak train trip from New York to Arizona to her mother’s side following a fall. The handwriting, text, and the photographs are all from her mother and link the artist’s life to her mother’s past. The entire installation reveals the artist’s memory of her mother.