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January 31 — April 26, 2015
2015 marks the fifth year of Florida Contemporary. Exploring traditional as well as innovative media, themes and approaches, the works included in the exhibition represent the most current trends in Florida’s artistic scene. From young emerging artists to well-established local figures, the selection invites audiences to experience a diversity of styles in the context of a multidisciplinary facility.
The works in this edition of Florida Contemporary evidence the vitality of the artistic production in the Sunshine State. From traditional subjects represented in innovative techniques to unexpected juxtapositions, Florida artists use their talents to explore current issues. Through a multiplicity of media—painting, drawing, sculpture, glass, textiles—this select group of artists articulates social and aesthetic commentaries about local as well as regional, global and personal topics. We invite audiences of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy this unique exhibition in which contemporary artists communicate with each other through their creations.
Florida Contemporary is generously underwritten by Bob and Terry Edwards and Friends of Art.
Artists
Andy Owen
Antonio Chagin
Bernadette Despujols
Bianca Pratorius
Chad Jensen
Deming Harriman
Griselle Gaudnik
Ivette Cabrera
John Carroll Long
Juan Travieso
Mally Khorasantchi
Melissa Barry
Muffy Clark Gill
Natalie Zlamalova
Penelope Breen
Renée Rey
Rick Newton
Sharon Lee Hart
Tammra Sigler
Valeria Yamamoto
The studio and painting style of artist Mally Khorasantchi, GNL Class XIV, are featured in the November issue of Naples Illustrated. She characterizes her art as “large-scale, colorful abstractions from nature,” amd is currently working on her Oasis Series, depicting a place where you can find refuge.
Through November, her work is on exhibit at the Florida Capitol Building’s twenty-second floor gallery in Tallahassee.
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Mally Khorasantchi Solo Show, Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, September 2014
Coming early this October Mally Khorasantchi is having a solo show of her ecent paintings at Walter Wickiser Gallery in Chelsea, New York. The exhibition will be open October 4 - October 29, 2014 and the opening reception is Thursday, October 9th, 6-8pm. If you're curious about the artist check out this interview with Mally.
"Mally Khorasantchi’s large pulsating canvases conflate nature-based forms with abstract thoughts. Leafy tendrils poke through honeycomb-like nettings, dissolve into chalky mists, and are swept into currents of intense and variegated color. To be sure, Khorasantchi’s bold, keyed-up depictions bring to mind the mystical landscapes of Charles Burchfield, who similarly worked from familiar surroundings and imbued his imagery with deep personal symbolism, probing the mysteries of nature in an attempt to reveal his inner thoughts and moods. While the calligraphic strokes and transcendental light infusing such works as Plantation relate to the early-20th-century master’s aesthetic, Khorasantchi’s compositions, though unsettled in spots, bare no ominous cast. The turbulence, the swarm of jagged lines and fiery hues in the “Death of the Bumblebee” and “Genesis” canvases, does not tell of internal brooding and fears, but are rather homages to nature’s order. They are a celebration of the birds, bees, fish and flowers inhabiting an everchanging and enchanting landscape."
Walter Wickiser Gallery
210 11th Ave #303,
NY, NY 10001
T: 212-941-1817
F: 212-625-0601
walterwickisergallery.com
wwickiserg@aol.com
The opening reception for Mally Khorasantchi, Recent Paintings, will be held on Thursday,October 9th, from 6 – 8 p.m. For further information, please contact the gallery at (212) 941-1817, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Mally Khorasantchi was born in Germany shortly after the end of World War II. She started paninting from early age and studied under established German painters until she relocated to Florida in the early 1990s. From 2005, Khorasantchi has been painting full time and has been attracting her both private and corporate collectors from all over the world. In additions, the United Arts Council of Collier County awarded her this year’s “Stars in the Arts Award”. Her works are included in numerous private and corporate collections such as Two Harbors Investment Corp., KW Properties, and David Poorman Architect.
“To be sure, Khorasantchi’s bold, keyed-up depictions bring to mind the mystical landscapes of Charles Burchfield, who similarly worked from familiar surroundings and imbued his imagery with deep personal symbolism, probing the mysteries of nature in an attempt to reveal his inner thoughts and moods. While the calligraphic strokes and transcendental light infusing such works as Plantation relate to the early-20th-century master’s aesthetic, Khorasantchi’s compositions, though unsettled in spots, bare no ominous cast. The turbulence, the swarm of jagged lines and fiery hues in the “Death of the Bumblebee” and “Genesis” canvases, does not tell of internal brooding and fears, but are rather homages to nature’s order. They are a celebration of the birds, bees, fish and flowers inhabiting an everchanging and enchanting landscape.”**
**Deidre Greben
**Deidre Stein Greben is a former managing editor of ARTnews magazine and currently a contributing editor. In addition to ARTnews, her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsday, Elle Décor, Art + Auction, among other publications. She has also edited several catalogues for the Whitney Museum of American Art and have written scripts for museum exhibition audio tours produced by Acoustiguide and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
By Deidre S. Greben
Mally Khorasantchi’s large pulsating canvases conflate nature-based forms with abstract thoughts. Leafy tendrils poke through honeycomb-like nettings, dissolve into chalky mists, and are swept into currents of intense and variegated color.
The thrust of transformation pervades--in the delicate stems floating gracefully across the gold expanse of Zauberwald V, in the fiery maelstrom brewing in the lower half of Death of the Bumblebee VII, in the floral imagery that at once emerges from and dissolves into the bright aquamarine depths of Oceana.
Khoransantchi’s fascination with the continuum of change grows, in part, out of her midlife relocation from Dusseldorf, Germany, to southwest Florida. Away from the autobahn, she found in the lush vegetative world surrounding her a force of personal expression. Images such as the flatly rendered and boldly delineated “Sea Grape” paintings are not simply decorative evocations of plantlife but symbols with their own subtext. In other works, the hexagon, a shape extracted from threatened indigenous beehives and from the writings of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, becomes a leitmotif for connectedness, restoration, and continuance. The gnarled trunks of the tropical mangrove trees featured here in Khorasantchi’s “Oasis” paintings shield all manner of life in their limp and blossoming fronds, representing a safe and regenerating haven. Even the burst of stylized, psychedelic flora and fauna in Fantasia is a nod to her new environment—Florida’s local theme parks.
Trained in china painting as a young girl, Khorasantchi’s predilection for floral subjects was apparent early on. But it was not until she studied with New York painter Graham Nickson that they developed into more than sweet, pleasing visions. She began to invest the graceful leaves and lush colors to which she was drawn with newfound intensity, transforming them into receptacles for her emotions and beliefs. In Zauberwald IV (Magic Forest) Khorasantchi reflects on the mangled, mysterious roots of the mangrove jungle and her own roots after a trip back to Germany. Smooth tree trunks and graceful multicolored shoots emerge from an ethereal haze, suggesting a mystical conversion. In Genesis V , Khorasantchi forgoes recognizable imagery completely for pure expressionistic abstraction.
To be sure, Khorasantchi’s bold, keyed-up depictions bring to mind the mystical landscapes of Charles Burchfield, who similarly worked from familiar surroundings and imbued his imagery with deep personal symbolism, probing the mysteries of nature in an attempt to reveal his inner thoughts and moods. While the calligraphic strokes and transcendental light infusing such works as Plantation relate to the early-20th-century master’s aesthetic, Khorasantchi’s compositions, though unsettled in spots, bare no ominous cast. The turbulence, the swarm of jagged lines and fiery hues in the “Death of the Bumblebee” and “Genesis” canvases, does not tell of internal brooding and fears, but are rather homages to nature’s order. They are a celebration of the birds, bees, fish and flowers inhabiting an everchanging and enchanting landscape.
"Mally Khorasantchi’s large pulsating canvases conflate nature-based forms with abstract thoughts. Leafy tendrils poke through honeycomb-like nettings, dissolve into chalky mists, and are swept into currents of intense and variegated color. To be sure, Khorasantchi’s bold, keyed-up depictions bring to mind the mystical landscapes of Charles Burchfield, who similarly worked from familiar surroundings and imbued his imagery with deep personal symbolism, probing the mysteries of nature in an attempt to reveal his inner thoughts and moods. While the calligraphic strokes and transcendental light infusing such works as Plantation relate to the early-20th-century master’s aesthetic, Khorasantchi’s compositions, though unsettled in spots, bare no ominous cast. The turbulence, the swarm of jagged lines and fiery hues in the “Death of the Bumblebee” and “Genesis” canvases, does not tell of internal brooding and fears, but are rather homages to nature’s order. They are a celebration of the birds, bees, fish and flowers inhabiting an everchanging and enchanting landscape."
Read the full article here: https://www.cluttermagazine.com/news/2014/09/mally-khorasantchi-solo-show-coming-walter-wickiser-gallery
Through November 30, 2014
Artwork by Florida Artist Mally Khorasantchi
Mally Khorasantchi is interested in how nature exhibits both chaos and calm, constantly evident on micro, macro and universal levels, seemingly at odds and without purpose. Through natural and manmade actions, evolution and deconstruction, there is often a new order, which can happen swiftly or evolve over millennia. While vanishing species and lands are harsh realities, there are newly discovered species, natural and manmade adaptations and renewal, as well as a growing awareness for global sustainability.
Reflecting on these concerns, Khorasantchi’s paintings do not offer the viewer horizon lines or perspective to give order or focus. She seeks to convey chaos and fragmentation, calm and refuge in varying degrees with a bold and vibrant physicality. The hexagons in her paintings symbolize a connectedness and continuance between chaos and order and earth's remarkable ability to self-heal from most natural and manmade environmental disasters.
TALLAHASSEE –
Secretary of State Ken Detzner is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of artwork by Florida artist Mally Khorasantchi. The exhibition is on display in the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery through August 31, 2014.
“Mally Khorasantchi uses color and scale to capture elements of nature in inventive and captivating ways,” said Secretary of State Ken Detzner. “We are thrilled to be exhibiting this great Florida artist who has participated in the Department of State’s programs for individual artists. I encourage all art lovers to visit the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery to view Ms. Khorasantchi’s large and beautiful paintings.”
Read the full article here: http://dos.myflorida.com/communications/press-releases/2014/artwork-by-mally-khorasantchi-on-view-in-the-22nd-floor-capitol-gallery/
TALLAHASSEE – Secretary of State Ken Detzner is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of artwork by Florida artist Mally Khorasantchi. The exhibition is on display in the 22ndFloor Capitol Gallery through August 31, 2014.
“Mally Khorasantchi uses color and scale to capture elements of nature in inventive and captivating ways,” said Secretary of State Ken Detzner. “We are thrilled to be exhibiting this great Florida artist who has participated in the Department of State’s programs for individual artists. I encourage all art lovers to visit the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery to view Ms. Khorasantchi’s large and beautiful paintings.”
Mally Khorasantchi was born in Dusseldorf, Germany shortly after the end of World War II. She studied with several noted professional German artists before immigrating to the United States and becoming a permanent resident of Florida in 1992. A successful, full time professional artist since 2005, both private and corporate clients in the U.S. and abroad have collected her work. In 2011 and 2012, Ms. Khorasantchi participated in two Creative Capital Foundation professional development workshops organized by Citizens for Florida Arts, Inc. and the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs. Khorasantchi was recently awarded with the prestigious 2014 “Stars in the Arts Award” by the United Arts Council of Collier County.
The exhibition is part of the Division of Cultural Affairs’ Capitol Complex Exhibition Program and can be seen on the 22nd Floor of the Florida Capitol. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For further information, contact the Division of Cultural Affairs at 850.245.6470.
About the Division of Cultural Affairs
The Division of Cultural Affairs is Florida’s legislatively designated state arts agency. The Division promotes the arts and culture as essential to quality of life for all Floridians. To achieve its mission, the Division funds and supports cultural programs that provide artistic excellence, diversity, education, access and economic vitality for Florida’s communities. For more information about the Division and its programs, visit florida-arts.org.
CONTACT: Brittany Lesser, 850.245.6522
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 3 -- The Florida Department of State issued the following news release:
Secretary of State Ken Detzner is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of artwork by Florida artist Mally Khorasantchi. The exhibition is on display in the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery through August 31, 2014.
"Mally Khorasantchi uses color and scale to capture elements of nature in inventive and captivating ways," said Secretary of State Ken Detzner. "We are thrilled to be exhibiting this great Florida artist who has participated in the Department of State's programs for individual artists. I encourage all art lovers to visit the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery to view Ms. Khorasantchi's large and beautiful paintings.
http://dos.myflorida.com/communications/press-releases/2014/artwork-by-mally-khorasantchi-on-view-in-the-22nd-floor-capitol-gallery/
Naples, Florida (November 14, 2013) - The United Arts Council of Collier County has announced the winners of the 2014 Stars in the Arts awards. Representatives from several disciplines in the arts community are among those chosen and include one couple, three individuals and two nonprofit cultural organizations. Winners are Linda Cummings, Mally Khorasantchi, Megan McCombs, Jon and Sonja Laidig, Holocaust Museum and Education Center and Naples Botanical Garden.
The United Arts Council introduced the Stars in the Arts program eight years ago to recognize individuals and organizations for leadership in the arts. Nominations are accepted from the public, and this year 39 nominations were received. A selection committee consisting of past Stars in the Arts winners and leaders in the arts community review applications. They carefully assess credentials and rate each nominee based on their contributions to the arts.
Elaine Hamilton, the Council’s executive director, indicates “These are the ‘People’s Choice’ awards. The public nominates worthy candidates from the arts and cultural community, and nominees are evaluated by their peers. This year’s winners are certainly deserving of this recognition.”
Awards will be presented to the winners at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria on Friday, March 7. Information about the event is available by calling 254-8242.
The 2014 winners come from several arts disciplines, including theatre, visual arts, museums and arts education. They are:
Linda Cummings – Linda currently serves as the Fine Arts Coordinator for the Collier County Public Schools and is a champion for the arts in our schools. She has been on the CCPS staff for 10 years, and previously worked for the Bonita Springs Art League. Linda taught school in Minnesota for 13 years, and was named Minnesota’s Middle School Art Teacher of the Year. She has initiated numerous collaborations in music and art between CCPS and nonprofit arts groups. Linda oversees annual student art shows and Honors Concerts for band, orchestra and chorus. Although she plans to retire in May, she will leave behind a rich legacy of devotion to the arts.
Mally Khorasantchi – Mally is a professional artist, whose colorful canvases are in private collections all over the world. She has studied with many of the top artists in the country. Her works have been shown in galleries and exhibitions at numerous locations, including New York City, Palm Beach and Dusseldorf. Several of her works were selected for exhibition in the Tampa International Airport. Mally served six years on the board of directors of the United Arts Council and was board President in 2011-2012. She is a graduate of the Greater Naples Leadership program and active in their cultural program.
Jon and Sonja Laidig – The Laidigs are long-time residents of Marco Island who have a commitment to philanthropy and preserving the island’s history. Their initial donation of $1.5 million to the Marco Island Historical Society resulted in the establishment of the Marco Island Historical Museum. Without this gift, the museum probably would not have been built. Additionally, the Laidigs donated $500,000 to an endowment for the Historical Society to ensure ongoing support for the island’s history and the Museum.
Megan McCombs – Megan has been the director of The Naples Players children’s program, KidzAct, for eight years. She is devoted to the theatre, having been an actress, director, playwright, and program manager. Under her leadership, KidzAct enrollment grew to 600+ students annually. Megan expanded the program to include taking theatre into the schools, where 2,000+ children will be served. KidzAct presents six full stage productions each year.
Holocaust Museum & Education Center – Established in 2001, the museum promotes understanding and respect. The Center houses a permanent exhibit including many artifacts and original photographs related to the events of, and people impacted by, the Holocaust. An average of 5,000 visitors come to the museum annually. Their educational programs reach an average of 15,000 students each year, and include a student art contest and teacher training in the humanities.
Naples Botanical Garden – In just five short years, the Naples Botanical Garden has grown to be one of the leading cultural organizations in Collier County. The Garden is a community gathering place that features special events, musical and theatre performances and traveling exhibitions. From the welcoming tile mural to plein air painters, this world-class paradise combines the arts, tropical gardens and restored natural habitats. They have partnered with several local arts and cultural nonprofits, including the current partnership with the Baker Museum featuring sculptures by Hanneke Beaumont.
Individuals and organizations that have won the Stars in the Arts awards in the past are: Myra Daniels, Patty & Jay Baker, Olga Hirshhorn, Harriet Heithaus, Dr. Erich Kunzel, Dolph von Arx, Clyde Butcher, Andrea Clark Brown, Delores & John Sorey, Charlie Horn, Paul Arsenault, Bill Meek, Jonathan Green, Mary Margaret Gruszka, Joel Banow, Ted Tobye, Dr. Ron Bowman, Betsy & Al Harris, Jim Rideoutte, Kathy Spalding, Dr. Ron Doiron, Elaine Vreenegoor, Bette Young, Peg Longstreth, Brian Holley, Donna Fiala, Toby Blumenthal, Bert Philips, Kristen Coury, Mark Danni, Jim Cochran, William Noll, Peter Thomas, Richard Tooke, Dallas Dunnagan, Eva Sugden Gomez, Charles Gottschalk, Simone & Scott Lutgert, Jack O’Brien, student Star Kylen Moran; Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples Players, Classic Chamber Concerts, Naples Art Association, Art League of Marco Island, Paradise Coastmen Barbershop Chorus, Naples Music Club, Opera Naples, and Naples Concert Band.
The Village collaborated with the United Arts Council. We welcomed ‘plein air’ painters throughout the Village to paint the unique Venetian buildings and waterfront scenes. We also had the incredibly talented Mally Khorasantchi in a pop-up gallery to The Village Saturday, November 2nd.
Über die Künstlerin
Mally Khorasantchi
Die Düsseldorfer Künstlerin wohnt seit 1992 in Naples. Nach einem Kurs bei Graham Nickson von der New York Studio School änderte sie ihren Stil – und mit ihrer Karriere ging es bergauf. Mally Khorasantchi, die einen Mann und vier erwachsene Kinder hat, war bereits in vielen Museen und Galerien zu sehen, unter anderem in der Galerie Fischer Zoeller in Düsseldorf, der Galerie Walter Wickiser in New York und im Miromar International Design Center in Estero. Im Jahre 2014 folgen Einzel-Ausstellungen in Tallahassee und New York.
GULFSHORE LIFE / MARCH 2013 / CHANGE ARTISTS
What compels artists to venture into new styles with their work? Four stars of the local art scene explain their moves.
An artist who lives in Bonita Springs, McAleer is going through a big change in his work right now. After several years of painting and making mixed-media works in a hard-edged, geometric style, he’s turning out pieces now in softer, less rigid forms. His old and new styles were on view side-by-side last fall at Samaniego Art in North Naples. McAleer’s older work brings to mind Op Art of the 1960s. His precise and mathematical “Optic Diamond” paintings deploy cubic, two-dimensional shapes to create the illusion of three dimensions. The repetitive forms—dubbed “jump squares” by the artist set up a visual tension, seeming to emerge and recede in space even though the viewer knows they are flat.
In contrast, McAleer’s new paintings have an organic quality. The two small acrylics shown at Samaniego avoid harsh contrasts and complex geometry in favor of meandering shapes. His new color palette has a tropical flavor, tending toward citrus, turquoise and tangerine hues. The canvases feel investigatory, inquisitive rather than completely resolved.
“I don’t know where it’s leading,” McAleer says of his fresh direction. He compares his art-making process to a road trip from Florida to Los Angeles. “I’m on the back roads, trying to go west, not on the superhighway. Along the way, you make mistakes, wrong turns. You break down for a week or so. Then you see a shape, a color, you get an idea. You get back in your car and drive some more. Eventually, you get where you want to go.”
It’s rare for an artist to teach for 40 years and achieve gallery representation later in life, which is what happened for McAleer. He taught painting and drawing at a high school in Moorestown, N.J., doing his own work on the side, until he retired in 2006. In 2007, he was given a one-man show at the prestigious Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. Eventually, he was signed by the nearby Bridgette Mayer Gallery.
He’s well aware of the economic pressures that come with the gallery business. Artists often feel that they have to maintain a signature style sought by collectors and curators. “If you’re not involved with a gallery, you’re your own boss. If you’re involved with a gallery, you get directives from the gallerist. It’s a delicate path trying to maintain the integrity of your vision and what your gallerist feels is sellable,” McAleer says.
Still, he can’t help but wander the back roads. “I want to explore whether I can create a surface that I find engaging, that has movement, structure and interest. I don’t make a lot of political statements in my work. I can’t paint work that I don’t find appealing and interesting. I have to do something that engages me, and when it engages me, it engages me totally,” he says. “I only paint to please myself.”
Style Matters
What is style in art, anyway? Why is the hand of an individual artist often immediately recognizable in a given work? What happens when a mature artist transforms his or her style? It’s common for artists to go through an exploratory phase at the beginning of their careers. They hash over stylistic options inherited from their teachers or artists they love and begin to develop a personal vision. Many then settle into a comfortable groove, their “mature” style. The acquisition and subsequent alternation of an artist’s style is a complex and interesting issue, one that is at the heart of the question of why artists do what they do.
“Style is what is left over when you eliminate content,” says Anne-Marie Boucher, an associate professor of art history at Florida Gulf Coast University. “It’s what exists beyond content. It’s what makes a work of art different and unique. It’s the sum of all the expressive choices and gestures that the artist makes.” She adds that over the millennia since our ancestors began scrawling images of animals on cave walls, artists have exerted conscious control over the look of their work and demonstrated an awareness of the power of their visual language. Sometimes style is affected by market forces or shaped by workshop practices.
“To me, the most profound example of an artist changing his style, and not for shallow reasons, is Rembrandt,” Boucher says. “Rembrandt starts out being very tied into the style of Northern Baroque art. He’s almost indistinguishable from his second teacher, Pieter Lastman. His painting style is dynamic and dramatic, but also solid and detailed.” In the early years of his career, Rembrandt loved exotic details and rich costumes. There was a lot of fantasy and role-playing in his art.
“Then his wife dies. And his style changes overnight. He doesn’t care about the things he used to care about. A lot of things change about his style. He becomes less flashy, more introspective. He becomes more psychological and less tied to the market. His approach to representation is vastly simplified. He’s less interested in creating three-dimensional space. His surfaces are less elaborately worked. It’s very telling. Rembrandt’s style becomes more about Rembrandt. His painterly style becomes his brand.”
Among more recent artists, Picasso is known as the ultimate shapeshifter. He moved from one style to another over the course of his long career—from his early prowess as an accomplished draftsman during his Symbolist, Blue and Rose periods to the ground-breaking development of Cubism at the beginning of the 20th century. He went on to explore Neoclassicism, Surrealism and Expressionism, often working in more than one style at any given time.
Philip Guston (1913-1980) experienced a scathing response when he underwent a major stylistic transformation in the late 1960s. A contemporary of Jackson Pollock and a first-generation Abstract Expressionist, Guston made a name for himself in the art world of the 1950s and ’60s as a painter of gestural, blocky abstractions.
In 1967, he moved to Woodstock, N.Y., and began painting recognizable motifs, such as shoes, cigarettes, light bulbs and Ku Klux Klansmen, rendered in a deliberately crude, cartoonish style. When he exhibited his new work in 1970, the critics stamped their feet, loudly, in print. New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer blasted Guston in a review titled, “A Mandarin Pretending to be a Stumblebum.”
For the record, the stumblebum came out on top. Today, Guston’s later paintings are among the most coveted examples of his work. His 1978 painting, Orders, showing a row of upturned shoes, sold for $6 million at Art Basel Miami Beach in December.
Pivot Points
As the story of Rembrandt suggests, shifts in an artist’s style can be associated with life transitions. For several Southwest Florida artists, that’s certainly been the case. “My life and my art are inseparable,” says Hollis Jeff coat, who lives on Sanibel and is represented on the island by Watson-MacRae Gallery. She is well known for ethereal canvases that distill the phenomena of nature into luminous veils of light and pools of lush color.
A major change in her style transpired in the late 1980s, when she moved back to New York City after living in France for eight years. In America, her previously solid and structured paintings started to become more abstract and dematerialized.
“Up until the late ’80s, I considered myself a landscape painter,” she says. “I wanted to find out how the trees and sky and ground worked together and what the structure of that relationship was. I wanted to know how those things worked together with light and color to make a spiritual and emotional statement.
“I felt a new kind of freedom being back in the United States. I felt like I wanted more light in my paintings, more light in a different way.”
Experimenting with oil drawings on vellum allowed her to move paint around on a surface fluidly. “There was a translucent quality developing,” she says. “I could play more with opacity and the movement of the paint. I felt my paintings were becoming more lyrical.
“What I found out during those years was when I would feel less solid in my own life, my paintings would go more into representational imagery. After coming back to Florida, where I grew up, and owning a house on Sanibel, I’m feeling very free and able to explore more about the visions and memories I had as a child.”
Mally khorasantchi, a painter based in Naples, found that a sense of growing older motivated a stylistic detour. Several years ago, approaching her 60th birthday, “I started to think about where I came from, who I am and where I feel at home,” she says. She had emigrated to Florida from her native Germany in 1990, but didn’t pursue art seriously until a decade later, when she began to make large, bold, expressionistic paintings that responded emotionally to the churning landscape she saw around her. Often, she was drawn to imagery of mangrove roots, seeing in them a tumultuous life force.
Around 2007, Khorasantchi put a magnifying glass to her own roots. She began to incorporate photographic imagery into her paintings, making a body of mixed-media works called “The Deutschland Family Series.” She literally pulled her childhood out of the bag—an ample handbag that her mother had used to store mementos. It contained pictures of her father, of smiling cousins out for a walk in their Sunday best, circa 1950 (“looking for husbands already,” the artist jokes), and a convivial family dinner party. Fascinated by these scenes from a seemingly lost world, she wanted to show both happy and tragic times from her family life in Germany after World War II. “I think artists are storytellers at heart, and sometimes they must use different materials to get their stories across to the viewer,” she says.
She had the photographs enlarged and printed on six-foot-tall canvases. Then she painted her own imagery directly on top of the scenes, adding symbolic commentary to each. She didn’t sugarcoat what she remembered about her childhood. A picture of her father’s burial site brought back memories of his funeral in 1960, when she was 12. She painted a birthday cake on his grave. “I had to walk behind the casket —and it was my birthday. It was the end of my childhood, of being innocent and protected. My mother was left with four children and a car dealership to manage.”
A conflicted relationship with her mother is the subtext of another striking canvas, which shows the artist as a girl in long braids, surrounded by an abundance of pink roses. Khorasantchi felt her mother didn’t understand her or recognize her emotional needs; the flowers represent an episode when she tried to make amends to her mother by buying a huge quantity of flowers with the prize money she won in an art contest. The roses are lavish and intense, hinting at mixed feelings of love and, perhaps, aggression.
The Journey, Not the Destination
“I could be criticized for living in transition,” says Andrew Owen, an assistant professor of art at Florida Gulf Coast University, referring to the many stylistic pathways he’s traversed. He thinks of style as the artist’s personal voice coming through in the work. Owen was trained as a printmaker but works in whatever medium he feels is most appropriate to what he wants to communicate.
“I use the analogy of traveling when someone makes a big change in his or her work,” he says. “There are many benefits to staying home, like safety and security. But you can become a bit complacent. Working in a particular style, an artist reaches a point of comfort in the work, and I’m very wary of that. I’m a traveler and I feel that’s reflected in my artwork. I know it’s time to move on when I feel my work is becoming predictable.”
One journey has reverberated in his work for quite a while. It occurred in Thailand, where Owen and his wife, Nuch, were living in 2006. He planned a much-anticipated fishing trip with a friend, but as the time approached, bad weather was forecast. Nonetheless, the pair went ahead with the trip. When his first boat captain cancelled because of the oncoming storm, Owen found another with a smaller, more rickety boat. They sailed out into the Andaman Sea and fished in terrible weather. (They caught African pompano, he says.) Eventually, the storm abated and the sun came out. Exhilarated, Owen gazed at the bow of the boat, which was wrapped in brightly colored lengths of cloth for good luck.
He later painted this scene in a meticulously realistic style. The fabric had optimistic, spiritual meaning to him. However, back in the United States a year later, Owen found himself having to make wrenching decisions about his aging father’s care, and he felt crushed by the process. He made several small, detailed drypoint etchings of knotted cloth that expressed his sense of constriction. He went on to create obsessive imagery related to knots and tangles in a series of collographic prints and drawings on mylar. And, just recently, lacy, tangled lines have emerged in abstract engravings on glass that Owen created with a small drill. The meaning of the imagery has shifted again, now related to his feelings about spending time fishing on the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
“From the outside, it appears that there were big changes in style from one point to the next in these works,” Owen says, “but to me, there’s a common thread. A dramatic experience served as the starting point, then it was a very slow process of the images developing over time.”
Janice T. Paine is a freelance writer on art and program manager for arts education at the United Arts Council of Collier County in Naples.
TO CONTACT THE ARTISTS
Joe McAleer
joemcaleer.com
Hollis Jeffcoat
hollisjeffcoat.com
Mally Khorasantchi
(239) 595-3157
mallykhorasantchi.com
Andrew Owen
(239) 590-7249
aowen@fgcu.edu
This article appears in the March 2013 issue of Gulfshore Life
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The New Abstractionists VI
Wayne Herpich
Bill Jackson
Mally Khorasantchi
Merrill Steiger
September 5 - October 3, 2012
Sometimes, good things come in large packages.
Mally Khorasantchi is a tall, exuberant woman who makes tall, extroverted paintings. The Naples resident, who will become president of the United Arts Council of Collier County's board of directors in July, is gradually making a path for herself as an expressionistic painter.
"There's a tremendous physicality to her work – the bold strokes, the rich colors, the references to literal and ephemeral thoughts. She's been successful in putting all that into her work," says Barbara A. Hill of Ft. Myers, an art consultant who has worked with Khorasantchi to help the artist cultivate her career. Hill is former executive director of the Naples Art Association.
"There's no way you can look at her work and not feel energized," Hill added.
Khorasantchi has an exhibit of paintings on canvas and paper on view until January 2011 in an unusual setting – an upscale furniture showroom. Twenty-one very large works can be seen on the walls of Webster & Company's Holly Hunt Showroom on the third floor of the Miromar Design Center in Estero.
In such an environment, many artists might fear being stereotyped as a producer of "sofa paintings," innocuous works intended for purchase by those seeking to match art to the color of their throw pillows.
But Khorasantchi, whose paintings are anything but inconspicuous, realized the high-ceilinged showroom would be perfect for works that are so large, in some cases, she can't even display them in her own studio.
For instance, her "Stingrays I," 2007, is 6 feet tall and more than 12 feet wide. It is modular, painted on six sheets of archival paper mounted under Plexiglas. The sea creatures swim through billows of turquoise paint, mellowed with brownish streaks. Thickly outlined and swathed in iridescent pigment laid on with oil sticks, the rays are colorful shapes coursing through the water.
Sunglasses art
Oil paint is Khorasantchi's medium of choice. She revels in its smooth, buttery quality. She also likes to lay down paint and then "destroy" it by wiping it off in some areas, creating a rich, streaky, multihued surface.
Color is a key player in her work as well. "I'm always attracted to color," Khorasantchi noted during a recent interview in the showroom.
That's a bit of an understatement, really. Her recent canvas, "The Roots of Thinking VI," 2010, is a candybox of color. High-pitched yellows, pinks, reds, tangerine, and vivid shades of blue coexist joyously in this flowing, abstract painting.
Its composition is dominated by a channel sweeping from top to bottom, filled with repeated hexagons. These cellular shapes evoke natural substances, for instance, honeycomb and certain rock crystals. For Khorasantchi, the shape represents a fundamental building block of life.
She has become interested in the work of German artist Joseph Beuys, for whom honey signified nourishment, social interconnection and spirituality. In his legendary performance, "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare," in 1965, he smeared his head with honey and gold. His installation "Honey Pump in the Workplace," 1977, circulated two tons of honey through plastic tubes, powered by motors lubricated with margarine.
The charismatic Beuys, who died in 1986, was a neighbor of Khorasantchi's during the late 1970s in Dusseldorf, Germany, where she was born and raised. He was a famous teacher by then, but "I judged him to be an idiot" at the time, she said.
Lately, however, she's been exploring his ideas as well as reading the works of Rudolf Steiner. An Austrian philosopher who died in 1925, Steiner wrote extensively on natural science, politics, creativity, spirituality and education. His writings heavily influenced Beuys' thinking.
From learning to creating
Khorasantchi's newest paintings reflect her intellectual foraging, expressed as a greater freedom of movement and spatial complexity in her abstract works and an intensified environmental focus overall.
"Her work is becoming increasingly more insightful and there is more depth to the work because of the research she has been doing," Hill notes.
A major theme in Khorasantchi's art, literally and symbolically, is that of roots. She moved to the United States in 1992 at the age of 44, and became an American citizen in 2006. As an expatriate, her relationship to her past is complicated by the process of establishing herself in a new land.
When she moved to the United States and traveled the country, she says, what struck her initially was the sense of space and openness. In contrast to a crowded Europe, America felt vast and unspoiled.
She and her husband, Ali Khorasantchi, settled in Naples and opened businesses, and she immersed herself in the new landscape and social environment. She owned a makeup and nail salon, which eventually grew to two shops employing 18 people.
"It was my entry into the United States," she says of the salon business. "The diversity of people was amazing. And in a salon, people talk to you, they tell you everything. They gave me access to the whole culture."
In 2001, she sold the salons and found herself with time on her hands – time that could be devoted to art. Khorasantchi had been involved with art since she was a child and learned china painting as a young teen. In the 1980s, while raising a family, she studied drawing and painting at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art. Her paintings at the time tended toward floral subjects.
"They weren't that bad," she noted with a wry smile.
So she studied at the Naples Art Association and with abstract painter Hollis Jeffcoat, who'd opened a small, private school of art here. Khorasantchi enrolled in the New York painter Graham Nickson's painting marathons, which are intensive multiday sessions. She also studied in Connecticut with Hugh O'Donnell, a professor of art at Boston University. She and several friends banded together to share a studio space, calling it "Studio Blue."
Attracted to still life and landscape scenes, Khorasantchi found herself investing her subject matter with a gripping intensity. Her paintings of bananas, two of which are on view at Miromar, are striking both in scale and impact. A humble, everyday fruit, made monumental, suddenly seems like the most important thing in the world.
Nature beckoning
Mangrove roots have come to figure prominently in her work, too. Many of her paintings over the past five years depict tangles of roots, snarled and interwoven.
"On my walks, I was so fascinated by the roots around me here. They are always chaotic, always fighting for space," she explained.
A symbol of south Florida, the mangroves are an essential part of an increasingly fragile and threatened ecosystem. Her passionate renderings of the plants emphasize their role as a place where life is constantly churning, being born and dying.
Whatever her subject matter, Khorasantchi aims to be direct, spontaneous and true to her own experience. At times, she says, "I would like to be more subdued. I would like to be more civilized. I would like to be smaller. Then I see a tube of paint and I could just eat it up."
That kind of exuberance would be hard to squeeze into a small container.
Janice T. Paine is a free-lance writer on art who contributes regularly to the Naples Daily News. She is also program manager for education services at the United Arts Council of Collier County.