A visit at Howardena Pindell’s Studio
Across an evocative canvas, animated with the delicate glimmers of sequins stitched into the work, the traces of familiar textures construct a dense symbolic landscape. Through the richly worked surface of ‘Untitled #24,’ Pindell extends her formal and primary teachings of figuration and employs radical abstraction that explores critical questions of identity and visibility.
Pindell's abstract paintings are richly textured and meticulously designed. She creates these works by painting and hole-punching various pieces of paper, layering these dots and other materials on each canvas in confetti-like arrangements. The artist coats her canvas in paint with a squeegee to complete the process. The use of the grid allows her to speak the same formal language of the most heralded artists of the time, adopting the rigid visual grammar necessary to gain entry into spheres of recognition. Yet, the minute subtleties of the work offer insights into Pindell’s quiet challenging of those same tenets she simultaneously buys into.
See this piece @ 20 Rockefeller Plaza now until the 20th Century Evening Sale on 12 May in New York.