Katy Schimert and Ping Zheng
Melissa Dvozenja-Thomas, Executive Director, Arts Mid-Hudson
Art has the uncanny ability to take our life experiences and translate them into a form that we are able to share with the public. It’s one of the remarkable attributes of the art world in general. It evokes emotion based on an individualized experience. Everyone can take in a piece of art differently based on their own life experience. The Geary Contemporary art gallery in Millerton, New York just opened a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Katy Schimert and Ping Zheng that runs through October 1, 2023. This enchanting blend of artistic expression dives into nature and its possibilities in multiple art forms.
Geary was founded in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 2013 by Jack Geary and Dolly Bross Geary. Geary opened a location in Millerton, NY in 2020 and moved permanently to Millerton in June of 2022. The gallery represents emerging and mid-career artists working in a variety of media, and seeks to raise artist profiles and exposure through placement in museum collections,exhibitions, and art fair presentations. Jack and Dolly curate and rotate the exhibits every couple of months, bringing new voices and themes to the space. The latest exhibition at Geary with Schimert and Zheng showcases art recreating parts of the natural world and creating new ways in which to see it.
Katy Schimert is a 2020 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a recent artist in residence at The Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Schimert serves as Professor and Department Head of Ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design. Both the ceramics and drawings in the current exhibit investigate Niagara Falls as Schimert grew up in Buffalo and has a deep connection to them.
The four sculptural works created between 2019-2020 depict the water in the falls, two concave with darker hues reflecting on shadow and deep earthiness and two convex with lighter, brighter colors in a wide range of greens and blues. Each one has deep ridges and movement that leaves you in wonderment of their ability to stay upright and balanced. Schimert’s watercolors present a different view of the falls with vibrant colors found in a rainbow when sunlight and water meet, and allow the brilliance of the falls to be taken in.
Ping Zheng received an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in painting from the University College of London, Slade School of Fine Art. Zheng’s work draws upon her childhood experiences in nature and her boundless, energetic spirit while working from her studio in the city.
Zheng’s works are created with oil sticks on paper which allow the viewer to see the built up layers and texture as they come in for a closer look. Like Schimert’s work, Zheng’s pieces dive into an illusion of movement in nature with different scenes of water, earth, mountains and pathways. Some of Zheng’s work also allows you to travel, taking in the mirroring geometric patterns, and bold lines rippling energy throughout the piece.
This exhibition will allow visitors to explore nature in a new way. Viewers will leave having felt the movement from each piece, allowing for reflection of your own relationship to the natural world.
If you go:
Katy Schimert and Ping Zheng
Geary Contemporary
34 Main Street, Millerton, NY 12546
August 12 - October 1, 2023
Friday - Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and by appointment
info@geary.nyc
518-592-1503
www.geary.nyc
