HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

For her second solo exhibition with the gallery Elise Ferguson continues her exploration into the flexible nature of perception. Using pattern, color, and her signature range of material approaches, Ferguson creates works based on mathematical puzzles and geometric variation. Her intense application of color and pattern create pressure between an abstracted object and ground – where every shift in hue and value is a subtle play of image, saturation and alchemical surface quality. Irregularities and depth of relief further carve her surfaces with a tension between illusionistic space and a painting’s physical plane. Indications of her process and clues to each picture’s history are revealed in layers on the beveled edges of each panel.  Deckled with pigmented plaster build-up, these unkempt edges create another tension – between control and order. Visible scuffs and pencil markings further attest to the contingencies of her process. Concentric circles, radiating grids and undulating patterns first register as abstract images, but then begin to appear representational.  This tendency to depict or interpret “something” is reflected in the titles – a means of embracing the associative nature of looking, thinking and naming. Both cerebral and physical, This Way That, reflects the artist’s endless fascination with both the limits of materials and the resolutely optical.

Elise Ferguson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has had recent solo exhibitions with Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco; White Columns, NY; and at Illinois State University. Her works have been included in exhibitions at Luhring Augustine, Team Gallery, Dieu Donne Papermill, The Sculpture Center, Andrew Kreps, CRG Gallery, Longhouse Projects, NY; Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland; Norwich Galllery, England; Lothringer Dreizen, Munich; among others. She has been awarded several  residencies including at MacDowell Colony, Socrates Sculpture Park, Dieu Donne Papermill, and was the 2014 winner of the EXPO Chicago Northern Trust Purchase Prize. Ferguson is represented by Halsey McKay Gallery and Romer Young Gallery.