MAY 11 – JULY 1
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11-6pm and by appointment
Opening Reception: May 18, 6–8pm
This presentation will debut Hester’s newest series entitled “Axis.” The works are striking sculptures in an X shape. Their forms are crafted with curved plexiglass. Their surfaces are adorned with acrylic, aluminum leaf and wax. They are simultaneously exuberant and introspective, colorful and contemplative. These works embody the hallmarks of her practice—dimensionality, dynamism and color. The artist has an acute sensitivity to texture and flow. The show at SEFA LES will include Hester’s incredible series of fifty small X shaped sculptural works that are about two feet high. Axis will also include her larger six-foot X structures, which are admirable in their transitioning hues and materiality, as well as their scale.These pieces are mounted on the walls, often in grid-like formations, referencing the larger influences in her approach to construction and display.
The exhibition Axis will also feature works from Hester’s previous series that have been exhibited with great success at both SEFA Hudson and SEFA NYC. The 3D X shapes of the“Axis,” the convex acrylic glass of the “Vessels,” the textural metallics of “Crossing Lines,” the patterns of “Convex,” the more traditional paintings on aluminum called “Confluence” and the colorful, lengthy “Strata” are all united here. Indeed, this show acts as a type of retrospective, featuring selections from the most notable of Hester’s works. SEFA has had the pleasure to work with the artist since 2012.
Hester’s practice is a meditation on both her personal and our collective pasts. Throughout her works, Hester consistently acknowledges the seemingly opposing forces that build our daily lives—creating an atmosphere abounding with both elegy and rejuvenation.
The artist’s technique of painting on each substrate—paper, plexiglass and aluminum—goes far beyond conventional brushwork. Through a painstaking and physical process, she applies and removes acrylic paint with the use of sanders, hammers, routers and drills, in a continual process of building, breaking and rebuilding. Surprisingly, even the works on paper are sanded.Surfaces are mottled and textured, scraped and punctured. Layer upon layer of striated, thick colors dance astride more delicate patterned areas, created with collaged bits of metal leaf and complex cross-hatching marks. Yet, strikingly, the eye finds places of rest as colors and patterns conjoin harmoniously, and chaos and control share spaces.
