Sabine Friesicke
'Encompassing a diverse range of media — from drawing and painting to collage and beyond — works on paper can offer a glimpse into an artist’s creative process. For many, the freedom and immediacy afforded by working on paper became instrumental to their practices, spawning new techniques and aesthetics, subjects and methods. Far from being confined to studies and experiments, works on paper represent important modes of art-making in their own right.' christies.com, 6 questions to ask when buying works on paper
This month, mtn space is examining the timelessness of works on paper from the perspective of three strikingly different but equally compelling, relevant artists. We are delighted to represent various works on paper by Melissa Meyer, Sabine Friesicke, and Louis Zwiebe.
MEYER, MELISSA
Established painter Melissa Meyer is debuting at mtn space this month with a selection of various works on paper. Several of these works reflect two contrasting facets of modern painting, where an astute modernist grid is seamlessly set alongside the psychic, painterly gestures associated with mid-century Abstract Expressionism. Meyer frequently references musical theory and nods to great 20th century cultural icons. On a related note, Meyer’s strong ties to the infamous Ninth Street Women also inform her work. At a time when we are looking to leading female artists for rich and saturated work, Meyer is as relevant as ever.
Meyer frequently names her works after iconic pop culture references, reflecting a nostalgic sensibility which leans into a timeless aesthetic. Her calligraphic brushstrokes unfurl, stretch, shimmy and skitter abruptly, and they do so with purpose and personality. Love Me Tender, a 2003 lithograph, and Meyer’s Hartman Series of monotypes (2008) are just a few examples of this.
Melissa Meyer received both a BS and an MA from New York University. A longtime New York City resident, Meyer has enjoyed an extensive exhibition history with solo exhibitions at: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York; Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York; Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus; Holly Solomon Gallery, New York and Galerie Renee Ziegler, Zurich. She has completed public commissions in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum, and the McNay Art Museum. Meyer received the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
FRIESICKE, SABINE
Berlin-based artist Sabine Friesicke is a frequent exhibitor at mtn space. Her contributions to “Works on Paper” include selections from both her Time series and Lightwaves series. Ontological in the space it creates, Friesicke’s extensive body of work gathers us around the effects of a reductive minimal aesthetic. “I use the line, because it has no reference in the objective physical reality,” Friesicke has said.
Friesicke applies paint in rhythmic patterns and generally works on surfaces from left to right and top to bottom, in orientations formatted as grids. Her alternating layers of highly saturated pigments and iridescent paints create an effect of movement and light which shifts with the viewer’s perspective. In Timewaves Orange (2020), for example, Friesicke captures breathtaking effects of natural light which shift with each passing moment. “My process-oriented paintings are about time and light. I am interested in depicting a reality which lies beyond.. which is visible to our eyes.”
Friesicke earned her MFA at Hamburg’s HfBk. Her paintings and drawings are part of prestigious collections including those of the Brooklyn Museum, Harvard University Art Museum, UCLA Hammer Museum, and New Mexico Museum of Art. Friesicke’s prolific exhibition background of paintings and drawings includes group and solo shows throughout Europe and the United States.
ZWIEBEL, LOUIS
Classically trained in drawing at Hunter College, Louis Zwiebel creates work that is commanding, anxious, and full of electricity. Whether you have an interest in printmaking, drawing, or design, Zwiebel can captivate an eye with the fewest of lines.
Even alongside established artists Sabine Friesicke and Melissa Meyer, the sophistication of Zwiebel’s pieces is evident. Often working through his stream of consciousness, Zwiebel shifts our focus from the principles and elements of design in abstract and interpretive works to specific subject matter. Through a disciplined repetition of line stroke, topographical definitions elicit strong solid forms. These architectural pieces are often small series conveying his process. An irrefutable standout example is his portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (2017), arresting in its softness and uncanny in its rendering. Whether it is a meditative series of consecutive line drawings or a portrait of a canonized cultural figure, Zwiebel has us watching. Zwiebel, originally from New York City and a practicing comedian, now resides in Lake Worth Beach.
