PR was first introduced to the work of artist Rachel Beach in Distance Trance, her solo show at Smack Mellon last year. Her sculpture and prints show a real commitment to geometry, material, and decisive color combinations. I met her a short time later and was a regular visitor to her Greenpoint studio as she was developing a new body of work for Blackston at Volta.

Dart, Nod, Steeple, Pivot, 2012
plywood, veneer, acrylic, enamel screenprint on veneer, charcoal on paper
dimensions variable

Gather, 2011
oil and acrylic on plywood, reclaimed beams
100" x 79" x 61"

Drawings, tests, screenpints

Beach initially developed her woodworking skills by altering the profiles of her painting stretcher bars, eventually transforming them into her sophisticated sculptural works. Her ideas begin with quick sketches of shapes that allow her to decide early on whether or not the forms make it past the preliminary stage. From there, maquettes are made, scaled drawing profiles are carved out, and the objects begin to take shape. Similar to other painters whose studio practice has shifted to making things instead of depicting them, Beach’s visual language presents an indistinguishable hybrid that brings out the best qualities of both disciplines.

Studio shot with Rise, 2011

Vectors

Installation View of Distance Trance, Smack Mellon, 2011

The sculptures have a monumental quality that she pushes in unexpected ways to break up their symmetrical construction. It’s refreshing to see an artist exploring object-based abstraction by warming up the territory of early Frank Stella and Donald Judd, allowing shapes and materials to generate visual content that resonates beyond formal decision-making. While her earlier work had a more curvaceous playfulness to the push and pull of color and perspective, the recent sculpture and prints contain a more singular, monolithic quality. There is a rigorous thought contained within the forms, with her expert use of utilitarian yellow highlighting certain shapes and intersections in the structure.

Canary, 2011
screenprint and oil, plywood, reclaimed beams
70" x 96" x 18"

Plot, 2011
framed screenprints
32" x 28.5"

In the Fields, 2011
framed screenprints
59" x 40"

Another important consideration is the the architectural qualities captured in the work that is echoed by the spaces in which they’re viewed. The scale of the sculpture and their arrangements in relationship to the viewer gives the work a figurative quality. The final layer comes in the form of color, patterns, and textures that are applied using various printmaking techniques or painted directly on the wood surface. This dressing up of the shapes enhances their personalities, but never softens the edge of that elusive space of existence between what we see and what we know.

The artist in her studio

Survey, 2011
oil on reclaimed plywood
30" x 15" x 8"

Gold Rush, 2010
9' x 9' x 14'
Socrates Sculpture Park

Past solo exhibitions include Blackston, New York, NY and Smack Mellon, Brooklyn NY both in 2011. Group shows include The Lower East Side Print Shop, New York, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; and Lennon, Weinberg, New York, NY. She is currently presenting a solo booth for Blackston Gallery at Volta 2012.

- Vince Contarino, 03.10.12