Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to present Organic Matter, a dynamic exhibition featuring abstract paintings by Erin Parish, ceramic sculptures by Andrew Casto, as well as, lightbox paintings and reflectoglyphs by Peter Gronquist. Working in different mediums, each artist explores their own concepts of nature, time, chaos, and order.
Erin Parish creates deep, layered works of resin and paint that have the power to shift and change depending on the day, light, experiences and mood of the viewer. Parish’s works are wholly inspired by nature and spirituality to create a space of peace. The circle remains an essential element in her work as a symbol of divine energy, compassion, and infinity. She introduces patterns of diamonds that dance and play between the surface and background of the paintings. Parish explores the balance between order and chaos by combining carefully crafted shapes and patterns with freer, irregular expressions in paint. The work Sea Nymph’s Habitat, plays just on the edge of figuration, allowing the mind to identify objects and animals in a playful way that one might find shapes in clouds or patterns in wood.
Andrew Casto also explores ideas of how stress and trauma shape a person, drawing inspiration from nature and geology. His ceramic sculptures are built up over time, layering slips and glazes through multiple firings to create organic, amorphous shapes. In creating these sculptures, Casto considers how lived experiences of both joy and injury build over time, ultimately coming together to form an imperfect and unique being. Lines of gold and silver thread throughout Casto’s work, gilding areas of stress or excess, and evoking hidden strength and value.
Peter Gronquist works in various medias to explore ways in which light and color can be manipulated, shifted, distorted, and captured. between is a radiating box of light and paint that together create a wide range of shifting hues of soft pinks and vibrant greens that are inspired by the subtle shifting of natural light and the hypnotic power of color. His reflectoglyphs are a newer body of work, the result of an exploration of how personal trauma can bend and shape a person. To make the reflectoglyphs, Gronquist blew up a stainless-steel mirror, creating a contorted and abstract steel shape. This shape still mirrors light, but in a twisted way, changed by the explosion. The graceful reflections evoke the appearance of light bouncing off water. The reflected light was captured on photosensitive paper to create works that immortalize and transform the memory of the traumatic event into energetic shapes.
Organic Matter embraces the tension between personal experiences that shape one’s worldview and the natural world itself that grows and evolves over time. Gronquist reflects on the transformative power of personal trauma, while Casto pushes his medium to the limit, creating imperfect, yet striking ceramic forms. Parish’s deep and meditative paintings fluctuate based on the viewer and viewing environment, exploring the harmony between gesture and geometry.
Erin Parish currently works and resides in Miami Beach. She studied at Bennington College in Vermont and Queens College in New York. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and featured in publications including The New York Times, Luxe Magazine, and BOMB Magazine.
Andrew Casto lives and works in Iowa City, USA. He was the 2011 MJD fellow at The Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Art in Helena, Montana, and has exhibited work internationally in Spain, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Belgium, China, Switzerland, France, and Japan. Casto was a recipient of a 2015 Emerging Artist award by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and was a finalist for the 2017 Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize with Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London. Casto has exhibited in over seventy group exhibitions, with recent solo exhibitions at Galleria Salvatore Lanteri in Milan in 2016, Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami in 2017, and Eutectic Gallery in 2019. He is currently Associate Professor of Art and Program Head of Ceramics at The University of Iowa.
Peter Gronquist lives and works in Portland, OR after residing in Oakland, CA. He attended the School of Visual Art New York and received a BA in painting from San Francisco Art Institute in 2001. He has exhibited in New York, London, Miami, and San Francisco. Peter’s work has been published in GQ Magazine, Hyperallergic and Wired. Gronquist was recently named as one of the top 15 new artists to collect by Business Insider.
