Dennis Balk

Qana, Palestine Large Mixed Media Conceptual Abstract Painting

2006

From his show Hashish at Michael Steinberg Gallery (bearing their label verso) Reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times. Abstract Expressionism meets graffiti photography. Cy Twombly in cyberspace. Existential physics. The trajectories of car bombs. These phrases came to mind at the show of Dennis Balk's new work, made during the last three years while he lived in Bahrain and traveled primarily in the Middle East. The show is dominated by black-on-white gestural drawings on canvas from Mr. Balk's Faith Thumbnail series. Full of graphic and even painterly nuance, they turn out to have been made completely on the computer. In a smaller room, the Exhausted and Ideographic series features gaudy, vertiginous digital mixes of colorful photographs. Originally a performance artist, he became known in the art world in the early 1990s for improvisational diagrams that brought different historical narratives into collision. One work in his solo debut at American Fine Arts in SoHo in 1992 charted the lives of Ho Chi Minh and Abraham Lincoln -- both fathers of their countries in different ways -- across white paper napkins. His 2003 exhibition at that gallery was titled ''Particles + Waves With Plausibility,'' as is a recent book of his work. Dennis Balk is an educator, visual artist, writer, media designer and playwright based primarily in New York. Balk has an MFA Degree from California Institute of the Arts. Throughout the 90s and 00s he was an Art Director and media designer for television, outdoor, print and emerging tech and social/ media at; Arnell/ Bickford Associates, Frankfurt Gipps Balkind, Foote Cone & Belding and McCann Erickson, New York. At Amster Yard, the conceptual agency within McCann Worldwide, Balk was involved in concepting high-profile campaigns that ran both domestically and internationally. As an interactive and exhibition designer, Balk has designed significant exhibition work for; Princeton University (The Firestone Library), The National Building Museum (Washington DC), The Jewish Museum (New York) and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC) in conjunction with the offices of James Ingo Freed. Balk has taught and lectured at a variety of Universities, most recently; UCLA in the Department of New Genres, the Università IUAV di Venezia, Yale University, Otis College of Art and Design- Public Practice MFA and as Coordinator of the Department of Fine Arts/ Computer Graphics at the New York Institute of Technology, Bahrain Campus. Since the late 80s his art work has addressed, in multiple formats (including several productions of his plays), the conditions of narrative and the narrative aspects of historicizing the present. His work has been exhibited internationally and reviewed extensively including; Artforum, Filosofia e Questioni Pubbliche, Bookforum, Art in America, Paper Magazine and The New York Times. While in New York, his primary gallery representation was with the seminal gallery, American Fine Arts. In February 2009, INOVA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee presented the early work survey titled, “Dennis Balk - Early Work 1890-2090”. His recent publications include; “Dennis Balk/1890-2090” (2010-channel 171), “Dennis Balk The Arabian Gulf” (2010-channel 171), “ash” (2009-channel 171), “Colin de Land, American Fine Arts” (2008-powerhouse books), and “particles + waves with plausibility” (2006-powerhouse books). SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2011 Jack Bankowsky, Rosetta Brooks, Ingrid Schaffner, Nicholas Frank, Christina Valentine, Dennis Balk, Jennifer Bolande...

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Grid No.6, 2009 (Contemporary Framed Abstract Grid in Neutral Shades Black & Coffee) by Birgit Blyth 40" X 25" paper vertical chromoskedesic monoprint 44 x 29 inches framed, custom frame with black wood molding and anti-reflective glass This contemporary, abstract style chromoskedasic monoprint was created by experimental photographer, Birgit Blyth. Without the use of a camera, the artist produced this chromoskedasic image by applying the photographic chemicals to black and white photo pager and exposing it to light. The variety of caramel, toffee, brown and black tones is determined by the different chemicals used and the amount of time they are exposed to light. Here, the artist paints with the photographic materials in a gestural, linear motion. Beautiful hues of coffee, caramel, brown, grey, and black intersect to create unique abstract, intersecting grid patterns that resembles a basket weave motif. The photograph is complimented with a black metal frame with non-glare glass. It is equipped with sturdy wire on the back for instant and professional quality hanging. About the artist and work: Birgit Blyth is one of our most innovative and prolific photographers who works in a darkroom yet uses no camera! Blyth has been experimenting with a technique known as Chromoskedasic painting since the early ‘90s and variations on this concept have been shown at the gallery for the last 20 years. The unusual process involves the use of silver particles in black and white photographic paper to scatter light at different wavelengths when exposed. A chemist of sorts, Blyth demonstrates a thorough knowledge of how the various photographic chemicals will react when applied to paper and exposed. Each work is unique with palettes that resonate brilliant tonalities of brown, green, black, and purple. Using this technique, Blyth creates abstract crosshatching grids and most recently has developed a more gestural series of 20 x 16 inch chromoskedasic paintings that explores the ethereal qualities made possible by the unconventional material. Birgit Blyth succeeds at keeping her work fresh and cutting-edge using analog methods that are being quickly replaced elsewhere with digital technology. Though Birgit Blyth began her photographic career using conventional photographic methods, she quickly became more interested in alternative processes. In the mid 1990’s a colleague showed her an article in Scientific American and it was here that she first discovered the technique called “chromoskedasic” painting, which would eventually lead her to fully finding her voice as a photographer. Blyth had always aligned herself with and been moved by abstract expressionist painting. The series of veil paintings by post-abstract expressionist, Morris Louis, was especially inspiring to her and caused her to ask herself how she could do similar interpretations photographically. In “chromoskedasic” painting, she found the answers and would begin on a new path in her artwork. The term “chromoskedasic” is derived from Greek roots meaning color by light scattering. Developed by a photographer named Dr. Dominic Man-Kit Lam, this process exploits the capability of silver particles in black and white photographic paper to “scatter” light at different wavelengths when exposed to light and chemicals. In her mastery of this photochemical drawing process, Blyth has painted lush washes of color into her own “Veil Series;” she has envisioned landscapes, both rural and urban, with melting swirls and marbled colors into rich palettes of toffee and lead. She has used this essentially experimental process to help her “see” the world around her. Blyth says she continues to be fascinated by the process because it requires “a combination of discipline, experimentation, and imagination, making possible a wonderful balance between control and surprise.” Because the chromoskedasic work is all analog, Blyth spends much of her studio time in the darkroom, which has become a rarity in the current world of digital photography. She does however, continue her preference for experimentation in numerous directions, even employing aspects of the digital age – this exhibit will also feature a new series of pieces created with the now defunct but much loved SX-70 polaroid camera, scanned and archivally printed on 24” x 24” fine cotton rag paper. Whatever the process, Blyth’s work is, as the painter and poet, Peter Sacks noted, a blend of “precision and mystery, of articulation and atmosphere.” Her images leave us with the feeling of ongoing action despite the apparent stillness; of qualities both dreamy and stark as light hits a stand of birch trees in a valley or a group of buildings in New York City. As Morris Louis evolved a style of painting that produced a complete integration of paint and canvas, so too has Blyth, with photo paper and chemicals, created a perfect integration of method and content. Artist CV: Born: Kousted, Denmark Resident in U.S.A. since 1963 Education: Denmark and U.S.A. Project, Inc., Cambridge MA (Photography) DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln MA (Printmaking) Maine Photography...