PEARLESCENT

 

an exhibition of new paintings by Marcy Brafman,

May 31 June 27, 2011.

NY ART BEAT Review June-2011


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brafman’s  second solo show at 532 Gallery with a new body of work employing a variety of tools and motifs that were only half realized in previous creations. The title “PEARLESCENT comes from the exploration of specialty formulations of One Shot Oil Enamel, the glossy, viscous fluid pigment used by sign painters and employed here with spray paint. Pearlescent, Fluorescent, Krylon, Montana Paint, and sometimes melted Crayolas, take on a form which is both extremely engaging but sticks to the repertoire she has popularized, of taking invisible icons and making them very overt, stylizing them with the medium and gestures of painterliness bordering on graffiti. These are paintings born of Jackson Pollock, the end of nature, comic strips, cartoons, rock n roll, black ops insignia, John Singer Sargent and a long toxic immersion in the living billboard of electronic and digital life. They are also mashed up with urban street poetry and American highway.

PEARLESCENT continues the artist’s exploration into the way symbols, signifiers, and half remembered gestures of the media landscape make up our collective psyche. The paintings of Marcy Brafman can be considered portraits of situations which are inherently symbolic, sometimes taking on symbol as icon, and mining it for humanistic traits mired in narrative that exist outside of fine arts but not outside of the human condition. Another painter might spend time trying to re-insert the symbol into the category or scenario from which it first appeared. But this might possibly obscure the symbol, obfuscating the process of discerning its efficacy and its inevitability. Instead, Brafman restates the symbol itself as a central esthetic event, as evidence of a gesture and its philosophical importance.

 

 

 

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Marcy Brafman donates work to Sculpture Center Benefit

Lucky Draw 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Lucky Draw – a one of a kind art raffle – guarantees that each and every ticket holder walks home with a work of art! This fast-paced one night event offers first time and seasoned collectors access to more than 180 artworks by top emerging and established talent. All proceeds benefit SculptureCenter.

Oil Enamel, Spray Paint on Canvas 20″ x 24″

Courtesy of 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel

 

 

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Marcy Brafman

Marcy Brafman’s semi-abstract oil paintings feature biomorphic representations of fierce creatures that intersect and collide on fluidly painted formats.  The upbeat optimistic colors defy the underlying tension, as organisms appear to vie for survival in tableaux with underpinnings in the natural selection process.

EXHIBITIONS

2012
•THE CRAZY GHOST FISH BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL Vellum 9 event installation
•THE PUBLIC SECRET painting and drawing installation curated by David Gibson
•WHITEBOX Benefit to Honor Ai Wei Wei
•SONIC 9 curated by Vellum Art Magazine – group show
•History Lessons group salon show curated by David Gibson Article Projects

2011
•NY Curates Online curation – Kevin Staynton Brooklyn Museum
•Ode On Melancholy – Janinebeangallery, Berlin, Germany –  group show
•”Pearlescent” One person painting show 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel NYC
•Vellum 6 Print on Demand PopUp curated by Stephanie Young
•Drawing With Pictures curated by David Gibson – Artjail
• Sculpture Center Lucky Draw Benefit
•RHM Benefit Marianne Boesky Gallery

2010
•AQUA Art Miami 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel NYC
•Autosemblematic – group show curated by Jennifer Junkermeier Local Project L.I.C.
•Backroom Biennial NY Studio Gallery – curated by David Gibson
•Buy What You Love_ Rema Hort Mann Foundation Benefit Jack Shainman Gallery
•Sculpture Center Benefit

2009
•Quixotic Beast _ Vellum Projects_Under Minerva curated by Stephanie Young.
•Brooklyn Artillery_
•Paper in the Wind_ 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel NYC
•SculptureCenter Lucky Draw Benefit
•Article Projects@the Pool Art Fair

2008

•Bronx River Art Center_site mural “Metropoles Art in Action” curated by Jose Ruiz
•532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel NYC _ “Truth or Consequences”One person painting show
•SculptureCenter_Benefit

2007

•Heskin Contemporary NYC _Meet Qute co-curated w/Elizabeth Heskin
•Amy Simon Fine Art, Westport, Conn._”Girls Gone Wild”
•Kinz Tillou Feigen NYC_”By Invitation Only”
•Vellum_Supreme Trading

2006

•War: What Is It Good For?  BK Smith Gallery; Lake Erie College; Cleveland, Ohio •Installation, Bridgehampton N.Y.
•Drawing the Line Against Domestic Violence

2005

•Realform Projects  Face Value
•Jack the Pelican Presents  Culture Vulture

PUBLICATIONS

Vellum Magazine #5 & 6 2008, 2011
Chelsea Now! Feb 2008

Categories: Exhibitions

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Truth or Consequences

Truth or Consequences

Marcy Brafman, "Truth or Consequences"

Marcy Brafman

Truth or Consequences

May 15 – June 7, 2008

Marcy Brafman’s paintings deal with the dark and light of the cultural landscape and the nature of character. They reflect on the demons and deities of the memory as seen on our devices, online, on television, billboards, boxtops, catechisms, illustrated classic comic books, masterpieces in the Frick, old paperback covers, graffiti and signage on moving vehicles and packaging detritus of every shape and kind. Concern with brand identity as a genuine spiritual state plays a strong role in the work, an examination of painting as a mirror to internal and external states, individual and social intentions. Each painting represents a logo poem, a distillation of an array of ideas into a simple painted statement. Each one plays a character in a private cast alphabet.

Categories: Exhibitions Past

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True to form

Group show, curated by David Gibson

January 18th – February 10, 2008

Marcy Brafman, Jenny Carpenter, Mary Murphy