Blackboard Tableau #1, Vija Celmins, 2007-2010. 3 found tablets, 7 made tablets, wood, paper, string, acrylic, alkyd oil, and pastel. Image via McKee Gallery.
Vija Celmins’ first gallery show in nine years features paintings, prints, and sculptures. At the core of the exhibition are Celmins’ assemblages of neatly arranged objects that recall an outmoded and cerebral academic youth: globes, maps, tablets, and books, are bronze-cast or painted. Celmins presents 16 such objects, in addition to 4 paintings and 9 new prints. Her exhibition at the McKee Gallery characteristically combines the personal and terrestrial with the cosmic.
More text and images after the jump…
Amerique, Vija Celmins, 2009-2010. 5-plate, 7-color aquataint with CNC engraving, spit bite, drypoint and graphite pencil, wood, and glass, printed on bright white paper. Image via McKee Gallery.
Celmins’ combination of media and her exquisite rendition of the temporal obscures the line between realism and conceptual representation. The small scale  invites her audience to observe the works closely and carefully. Celmins’ use of detail is essential to her pieces, which are photo- and object-realistic.
Table With Gun, Vija Celmins, 2009-2010. 3 found tablets, 1 made tablet: bronze, acrylic, alkyd oil, and pastel. Image via McKee Gallery.
Using a motley of undetectably varying found and created objects, the artist coheres her subject matter with an old-fashioned aesthetic. Conservative and delicate in its outer appearance, her work is nonetheless impassioned and startling, often referencing the violence the Latvian artist witnessed in 1938 Europe as a child.
Starfield, Vija Celmins, 2010. 2-plate, 1-color mezzotint, printed on bright white paper. Image via McKee Gallery.
Web Ladder, Vija Celmins, 2010. 1-plate, 1-color mezzotint, printed on bright white paper. Image via McKee Gallery.
Shell, Celmins, 2009-2010. Oil on canvas. Image via McKee Gallery.
McKee Gallery also features various paintings and prints of galaxies, webs, and oceanic imagery for which Celmins is internationally known. Celmins will be at the McKee Gallery through June 25th, 2010.
Related links:
Artists | Vija Celmins [ArtNet]
Biography | Vija Celmins [ArtInfo]
Current Exhibit | Vija Celmins: New Work [McKee Gallery]
