Brooklyn, NY- 440 Gallery presents Family, mixed media work by Shanee Epstein focusing on the idea of familial interconnections, encompassing her personal biological family as well as the connections that form her social and artistic families. These attachments are represented in the physical structure of her collages: she glues, layers and paints paper, fabric and small objects into an integrated whole, even sewing elements together to suggest bonds that are both tender and strong.
The work is autobiographical: by ripping, cutting and incorporating her own paintings and drawings from the past 30 years she visually reflects the history of a variety of influential relationships. There are silkscreens from her time as an undergraduate studying African art; her early attraction to angular geometric patterns, as opposed to baroque European motifs, has persisted in her work over time.
Epstein has long used a strong vertical and horizontal structure to organize her paintings, but her more recent collages have extended beyond the edge of the rectangle in a more organic and disruptive evolution. Although there are personal references in the work, Epstein communicates in the visual language of art: composition, color, line and space determine the final work of art.
Shanee Epstein is a co-founder of 440 Gallery and has exhibited extensively over the past several decades. Her work is in collections in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.
Family opens October 10 and runs though November 17. The opening reception is Sunday, October 13 from 1-4 pm
Artist talk: Sunday October 27, 4:40 pm
Closing Party: Sunday November 17, 1-4 pm
More information: 440gallery.com
