Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present our latest Salon Highlight with Detroit-based multi-disciplinary artist Olivia Guterson. Primarily through black ink, her compositions are deeply personal investigations of truth influenced by geometric abstraction, remembrance, ancestral patterns, and their relation to the natural world. The intricate layerings in her work reveal her inner knowings that exist beyond written language.
Guterson’s interest in pattern as language stems from her multiracial heritage, which inspires how the patterns relate to one another and stand alone. Her mother African American and her father Ukrainian Russian Jewish, Guterson never found herself feeling confused about her identity, like “half of a whole” as she describes it, despite the contrasts in culture embedded in her heritage; she has always been aware and sure of the space she holds in the world. This strong sense of self bleeds into Guterson’s artwork. The iconographies and geometric abstractions that make up the constellation of works for the Salon Highlight are informed by mementos or memories Guterson recalls, such as fabrics her grandmother sewed and quilted and that great grandmother would wear, or the spices her grandmother on her mom’s side would use to cook with growing up. Distilling these influences to simple, digestible shapes forge endless and harmonious patterns that tell a very specific story yet offer space for anyone to connect.
This work is remarkably precise for the materials employed. The use of negative space makes for an interesting composition as well as a place of rest. Her titles are derived through a deep spiritual practice where she views her work as an act of service and a way to engage and spark conversation.
In this piece the black is added last and although it rests on the surface, it acts as negative space which divides and organizes the patterning into a legible composition.
The smaller Tondos choose space that can either be positive or negative while providing a pause from the relentless kinetics produced from the intricate design.
Geometrics zoom and recede while the collage-like effect of the black sets boundaries in the organic grid as it transitions the circumference.
These pieces are a visually energetic yet meditative stream of consciousness. Composition is critical as there is no color to lean on to produce an efficacious arrangement. Their circular configuration allows any orientation the viewer desires. Guterson is currently expanding her repertoire at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Can’t wait to see where that takes her.
On view through August 24th at Louis Buhl & Co 1260 Library Street (alley) Detroit
*images are mine
direct quote from gallery materials
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