Bella Feldman and JP Long :: Dialogue September 3, 2009

In the nine years since Long walked into Feldman's studio, their relationship has grown into a prolific and creative working partnership between two accomplished sculptors. Their cross fertilization of ideas has enabled Long to develop into an established artist in his own right and has opened for Feldman fresh avenues of exploration in what has already been a distinguished career. "This exhibition," says Feldman, "illustrates the crossover as well as the differentiation of ideas between us." Sculpturesite Gallery is pleased to present the first joint exhibition by these two remarkable artists.

Feldman combines glass and steel with delicate, deliberate menace. Her work is a playfully cynical voice against the means of creative destruction. "I am pessimistic about mankind's future," she explains, "but I diffuse my anxiety with 'black' humor." In both form and content, Feldman engages in a dialectic to create unnatural hybrids - architectural organism, senseless reason and ominous banality. Tension is paramount.

Similarly, Long explores the opposing, yet surprisingly complementary, properties of dark steel and clear glass in wall-hung and freestanding works. The materials combine the seeming permanence of steel and the delicate ephemerality of glass into a symbiotic hybrid whose sum is greater then its parts.

Feldman and Long are both individualistic and symbiotic. One example specifically highlights this dichotomy. At the front of the exhibition is a shared pedestal holding a piece by each artist. Both employ the orb form in comparable size and similar materials, yet one is convex while the other is concave. "There's a saying among musicians," explains Long, "there's no new tune, just how you play it.. . . As I've heard Bella say time and again, quoting Picasso, 'Good artists borrow; great artists steal.'" Perhaps Feldman and Long borrow from each other; perhaps they steal; or, and what's more likely, they simply engage in Dialogue.

No charge.

Official Website: http://www.sculpturesite.com/Shows-Detail.cfm?ShowsID=60