Fleisher/Ollman is pleased to announce two solo exhibitions featuring new work by Sarah Gamble and Jennifer Levonian. While different conceptually and in their chosen media, the artists make for an interesting pairing as they each explore the bookends of the human psyche. If Gamble plumbs the unconscious realm of dreams and self-created mythological worlds occupied by a range of strange characters and foreboding landscapes, Levonian delves into the quotidian where the mundane is transformed into the fantastical, or at the very least, the hilarious.

Gamble's new paintings on paper and canvas are marked by her trademark synthesis of patterned abstraction and representation where narrative cohesion is suggested but always just out of reach. Gamble disguises, obliterates, or discombobulates the glimmers of reality that appear ever so briefly in her work. Eyes, hints of bodies, and faces hide behind veils of pattern or painted fur. Gamble's art always leads us to wonder whether she is experimenting with new modes of abstraction (obscuring portraits, say, with furry brushstrokes) or new ways of depicting the imaginary (never mind abstraction—this is fur, and these are non-human creatures). Adding to this notion of layering and obfuscation, Gamble also presents several collages for the first time in depth, an experiment started on an artist residency in Roswell, New Mexico, 2013–2014. Echoing her affinity for painted crystalline patterns, her collage technique incorporates the use of both paper and foam core painting pallets cut into shard-like shapes and adhered to both paper and canvas supports. The foam core-collaged shards resemble broken ceramics, or perhaps the dessicated skins of paint, and give these new works a sculptural sensibility adding a level of topographic density.

Sarah Gamble lives and works in Philadelphia. She has exhibited at Philadelphia venues such as Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Fleisher/Ollman. Gamble has shown elsewhere including Edward Thorp Gallery, New York; Abington Art Center, Abington, PA; John H. Baker Gallery, West Chester University, West Chester, PA; and Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR. She received a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, Gamble was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Residencies include Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY; Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE; Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Roswell, NM.