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| Mark Sheinkman, Pierrepont, 2014 oil, alkyd and graphite on linen42 x 76 inches (106.7 x 193 cm |
An abstract painter with roots in minimalist drawing, MarkSheinkman’s twenty-year-plus career depicts a core fascination with the essentials: line and space.
The
grit of his works on paper from the 1990s - dense, mechanical grids and
striations; the horizontals and verticals seemingly pressing and
smearing against one another - eventually gave way to a more lyrical
approach: still the same layering, depth and sculptural technique but
now with an added levity; the gestural swirls capturing light in a way
reminiscent of even earlier experimentations with flashlight drawings on
photosensitive linen.
Sheinkman's
work is purely abstract, the titles arbitrary or archival, referring to
the date or street names of the city where the piece was produced. The
process is consistent: oil mixed with alkyd applied on linen to create a
smooth, white surface onto which powdered graphite is added with
brushes and rags. Sheinkman then instinctively carves into the black
with an eraser, exposing the white underneath. The action repeats; more
graphite is deposited over the erasures, developing movement and history
within the confines of a flat space. This is one of Sheinkma'’s
hallmarks: blending line, texture and contrast to compose spatially
complex and visually hypnotic work.
Sheinkman
continues to draw upon the lexicon established by the New York School
with his latest body of work; recalling the mark-makings of Cy Twombly
and the action of Jackson Pollock; all generated with the simplest of
materials, following that creativity thrives in the company of
restriction.
Sheinkman
was born in New York in 1963 and received a B.A. from Princeton
University. His work is included in the permanent collections of the
Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the National Gallery
of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among
others. He has exhibited regularly in the United States and abroad,
including solo exhibitions at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kansas City, MO; the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan;
and the Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany.
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