June 17th - August 20th, 2010

John J. O'Connor

C'OD(e)R

Fleisher/Ollman is pleased to present drawings, paintings, collages and select sculptures by John J. O'Connor.

John J. O'Connor creates works that meander through a complex course. From a starting point in personal data (the artist's weight), chance (the roll of a die or winning lottery numbers) or statistics (the largest peaks and falls in the history of the U.S. stock market, or results from a Gallup poll concerning public confidence in the government), O'Connor's works, made from graphite, colored pencil, paint and found materials, are composites of quirky decisions, seemingly illogical tangents and obscure codes that end in a practice that is as much an homage to visualizing information as it is to pure abstraction. While giving form to formless information and pattern to seemingly patternless data, the artist simultaneously gives abstract mark-making some quantitative and measurable meaning.

Installation images

Kate Abercrombie

making, joining and repairing

Also on view will be intimate, patterned goauche paintings on paper and a wall-sized digital print by Kate Abercrombie.

Often using the basic warp and weft structure of the weaver's loom as an anchor for her compositions, the artist lays down repeating geometric shapes to dissolve the rigid axis from which she works. A reference to printed fabric, the shapes comply with the patterns beneath while subversively overshadowing their presence. In select works, quirky imagery, inspired by Alexander Girard's collection of toys, dolls, and religious folk art, are formed through slight tonal shifts in color. In others, the shallow surface remains purely abstract, bringing to mind the complex pattern repeats made possible by grids of pixels. Though carefully built upon the organizing principles of geometry, nothing in Abercrombie's work seems to stay put for very long; the images and compositions maintain a fluctuating, fugitive presence, dissolving just as quickly as they appear.

Installation images