June 29 to July 25, 2017

Ampersand is pleased to present When Y was Thus Released, an exhibition featuring drawings and paintings by Michele Hemsoth, Kyle Breitenbach, Matt Phillips & Matthew F Fisher. The title alludes to an essay by Aldo Leopold extolling the virtues of landscape in his beloved state of Wisconsin. Amid these pages one finds a subsection, titled Odyssey, in which Leopold imaginatively describes the movement of atoms, first X and then Y, through the stone, flora and flesh of ecosystems and the steady passing of time. It’s a slightly odd but eloquent celebration of diversity and a warning against the ill effects of homogenization, highlighting Leopold’s keen ability to observe the elemental and isolate moments of connectivity in what otherwise might seem a disjointed world. Something similar is at play in the work of the four artists featured here. Notions of the elemental pervade both the images we see and the materiality of the objects themselves. A commitment to an evolutionary practice, moreover, is evident when the work of each artist is considered as a whole. It’s as though, within distinct frameworks of abstraction, the artists occupy landscapes of their own creation. Like Leopold, they play the role of Observer, steadily recording nuances of color, texture and the movements of living things, real or imaginary, as they filter through. “For every atom lost to the sea,” Leopold wrote, “the prairie pulls another out of the decaying rocks. The only certain truth is that its creatures must suck hard, live fast and die often, lest its losses exceed its gains.”  

Michele Hemsoth lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions since the early 1980s, most recently a solo exhibition at Sardine in Brooklyn. “This installation of 31 paintings,” she notes, “departs from the traditional linear narrative and allows the work to be seen as a group that activates its neighbors, in all directions, to converse, argue and be alive.”

Kyle Breitenbach lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent concurrent exhibitions were presented at Shrine Gallery and ZieherSmith’s project space in New York City. “These drawings continue my investigation into architectural and geometric landscapes and interiors in conjunction with stylized figurative elements.” he notes, “Using repetitive geometry and color, I aim to synchronize the subject and space to a point in which the image becomes multifaceted in its interpretation.”

Matt Phillips lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Comfort Inn at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in New York City, Yard Sale at Devening Projects and Editions in Chicago and Piano, Piano at Studio d’Arte Raffaelli in Trento, Italy. "My works  employ fundamental elements of painting,” he writes, “simple shapes, modulated values and color relationships. These rather rudimentary components are combined and remixed to produce unexpected outcomes. Color, shape, mark and form engage one another in both strange and familiar ways, becoming tense, humorous, quirky and ultimately meaningful.” 

Matthew F Fisher lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent exhibitions include Observable Universe at Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York City and The Perfect Order of Randomness at Monya Rowe Gallery in Saint Augustine, Florida. “Lately, the idea of a perfect cosmic order, random in the greater sense of being but exact from our point of view on earth, has been a focus,” Fisher writes. “Planets, moons and stars aline in single file or stars space themselves equally to create an abstract design. This order heightens the sense of icon and spiritualness within the images, helping to distill assumptions we might have about nature.”

View additional available works HERE or email questions or requests HERE.

MICHELE HEMSOTH

KYLE BREITENBACH

MATT PHILLIPS

MATTHEW F FISHER