James Oliver Gallery is pleased to present Park Water, a 3-person exhibition featuring the works of Clare Birtwistle, Katie Kaplan, and Alexis Nutini. View the full catalogue below.
"I sit at the fountain in the early morning of summer swelter, where I notice the ripples refracting the particular shade of green pond scum into a kaleidoscope of forms. They intersect with that of the blue sky and its clouds, the yellow underlight of the tree leaves, and the fluorescence of the blossoms on the nearby bush that usher the joyful meeting."
Willful exuberance. These images measure such encounters and give full account of each of its sensations.
The works of Birtwistle, Kaplan, and Nutini find us at this refreshing scene of highly considered, graphic taxonomy of natural wonders and their heightened expression.
The concept for Birwistle’s constructed, wooden wall sculptures stems broadly from interaction with everyday forms both natural and manmade - it may be from memory, or the present. Resonant colors and shapes are resultingly produced almost repetitively, assembling and reassembling the motifs, compositions and color with hopes to intensify the experience of the viewer.
.jpeg)
Clare Birtwistle, Split, Acrylic on plywood and cradled panel, approx. 40 x 25 cm, 2024
Clare Birtwistle, Jiggle, Acrylic on plywood and cradled panel, approx. 36 x 33 cm, 2024
Kaplan, primarily utilizing screen-printing and quilting, creates work that investigates the natural world as a connective medium between spiritual and activist practices. These works consider the environmental destruction of our earth, and seek solutions in spiritual and cultural transformation.
The artist writes, “What does it look like when plants, fungi, soil, and water take the exalted place of angels, messiahs, kings and the wealthy in our culture?... Vibrant, graphic quilts display indulgence in material and gratuitous color and pattern, leaning into abundance. This quality is an expression of my identity and sexuality where language falls short; queerness and biophilia manifested as textures, colors and symbols, as ecstatic joy and holy vibration”.
.jpg)
Katie Kaplan, There’s a Log on the Ground (Hallelujah!)
Screenprint, monoprint, digital print and dye on fabric, batting, wood
45 x 45"
2023
Nutini focuses on rigorous experimentation with relief printmaking techniques through hand-carved, reduction woodblock printing and the digital technology of platemaking with Computer Numerical Control (CNC) routing. Nutini’s process is manifest of highly intentional placement, analysis of surrounding, and color esthesis.
Alexis Nutini, Pendulum Swing IV
Woodcut Monoprint
41” x 30”
2021
Alexis Nutini, Swing I, II, III
Painted Woodcut
28 ½” x 22 ½”
2024
A notable commonality of these works are their many cycles of editing, researching, reducing, deciding. Calculated and essential, each object is yet maximal in their representation of their subject, which is often that of a feeling sourced from our environment.
Park Water will be on view from 6/29-7/27 – not to be missed!
.jpg)