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The Substance of Abstraction In The Substance of Abstraction audiences are presented with a rich kaleidoscope of color, form, and texture that in conjunction breathes life into abstract artworks. Whether employing shimmering brushstrokes or bold fields of color, nonrepresentational art, with its lack of familiar forms, allows the work speak to us on an especially elemental level. Through their deeply personal forms of expression, these artists offer a stunning glimpse into contemporary abstract painting.
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Lorraine Folb
 
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Painter Lorraine Folb – born and raised in South Africa, now based in Sydney, Australia – moves between expressionism and abstraction in warm-colored mixed-media canvases. Generally dominated by alternately bold and subdued earth tones, her purified figures often recall the shorthand symbols of Joan Miró's late work: slender parallel lines simply adorned succinctly evoke the human form; colorful squares bisected by tall rectangles conjure homes with open doors and a welcoming, communal warmth. In other works any distinction between figure and ground breaks down, and Folb gives her forms over to the free play of abstraction.
Many of her expressionist works refer to her native South Africa, depicting traditional artifacts and objects, and rituals of rural life. These works also connect Folb's country of origin and adoptive Australia, both of which feature massive earthy, sun-scorched, expansive landscapes in their interiors. Her abstracted works, meanwhile, maintain a similar palette and style but offer more opportunity for contemplation, guiding the eye gently across their various planes.
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"We Can Work it Out"
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"Electric Youth"
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Monika Grygier
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Manipulating planes and spaces to represent urbanism, space and human activity, Polish painter Monika Grygier sets her acrylic works at specific places and times. Her urban vision recalls Piet Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie," although where that work unambiguously saw street activity from the night sky, Grygier adopts multiple perspectives. In certain works we seem to watch a frenzied bluish rush of commuting cars as if from a traffic helicopter, in others we look up the grayed sides of buildings from street-level, or see pedestrians filtering down sidewalks splashed with early morning's orange sunlight.
Regardless of the perspective she adopts, Grygier is able to imbue even works with cold grey and brown palettes with a sense of bustling activity and wonder that speaks to an irrepressible cosmopolitanism. Here, life and street life are one and the same. Certain brushstrokes confidently trace a thick, bold strut, some form a self-conscious trickle and others move in scrawled starts and fits as though distracted by the immensity of forces around them.
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"Lunes a Las 15:20 En La Ciudad"
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"Viernes a Las 19:20 En La Ciudad"
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Per Hillo
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Per Hillo’s paintings and sculptures are soothingly understated and unaffected, striking the perfect balance between stability and spontaneity. Hillo’s figures and shapes have an intrinsic grace, like they organically emerged out of the colors and brushstrokes that make up each painting. Yet the organic characteristics of Hillo’s art contrast its underlying orderliness. Geometric patterns and evenly distributed line work give his paintings and sculptures an egalitarian consistency, emphasizing the fact that every figure, shape and mark exists a single, flattened plane. This interaction between natural, spontaneous beauty and intentionality is what makes Hillo’s art compelling.
Ultimately, Per Hillo’s work harmonizes rawness and constancy, making eruptions of texture and expressionistic strokes seem part of a larger, ordered plan. Inspired by romanticism, Hillo constantly explores the complexities of nature and emotion, inviting his viewers to explore with him. His art belongs to numerous corporate collectors and has appeared on album covers. Hillo lives and works in Slagelse, Denmark.
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"Lucky to Be"
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"Together We Can"
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Simon Matheu
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Simon Matheu couples painterly gravitas with light-hearted wit. He uses acrylic spotting, a technique he developed himself, to turn his paintings into sumptuous parapets of color and movement. Though Matheu’s primary medium may be acrylic, he does not hesitate to incorporate other textures and forms. The diversity and energy of Matheu’s work keep it endlessly engaging: the dynamic thickness of a figure’s clothing might erupt against the solidity of the ground or uproarious accretions of paint might part to reveal the familiar gray of newspaper pages underneath.
Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism all populate Matheu’s artistic lineage. He calls his own work Expressive Figuration and keeps alive the vigor and forward-looking optimism that appeared in work of his predecessors. He traffics in bold, primary colors, celebrating the idiosyncrasies of the human form and the strangeness of social situations. Tirelessly exuberant, Matheu’s paintings encapsulate the density that characterizes daily life. Matheu lives and works in Bisaurri and San Cugat del Valles, Spain.
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"El Reloj de Pulsera (Secretos)"
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"Con Las Converses"
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Jasnica Klara Matić
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Jasnica Klara Matić creates sensitive woodblock prints that are at once primitive and modern, disarming the viewer through a worldview that focuses on the simple pleasures including dance, love and nature. Matić’s sense of texture plays a central role in her creative process, incorporating unusual media into the imagery including salt, spices, incense and wax, a number of which are connected to traditional healing properties. Many of her protagonists and accompanying natural features are rendered in a gauzy approach, remaining anonymous and allowing viewers to place themselves within the context of her fascinating world.
Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Matić’s history is at a cultural crossroads. She studied spiritual healing techniques and skills, and traveled a great deal throughout Egypt, the Sinai, South Korea and Tunisia. This expansive worldview is readily apparent in her work, with obvious influences of prehistoric art melded with a distinctive contemporary aesthetic. There is a natural feel to Matić’s work as her inspiring tableaux seem to flow effortlessly, reminding her audience of the bounty of life’s joy.
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"Michael"
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"I am a Part of Everything That is"
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Kerrie Warren
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Australian artist, Kerrie Warren's paintings show an attention to detail that is rare in abstract expressionist works. Striving to bypass self-censoring thought, her deliberate choice of colors and textures reveal an intensity of focus and sensitivity to composition across the entirety of the canvas space. With these gestural works, Kerrie is firmly in the tradition of an artist plunging straight from her heart to ours. She captures the moment of creation by which the weight and quality of the paint itself is offered as a powerful form of communication.
While at times these works encompass a wide range of colors, Kerrie also paints with a narrower palette, and thus achieves a subtle yet equally intense mood. However, whether the moments she is communicating involve a liberal range of shades, or more detailed, almost frenzied droplets, Kerrie Warren's works all share a common strength, the union of spontaneity and structure. Kerrie Warren works as a full time artist from her studio in Crossover, Australia.
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"Patterns in Chaos"
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"Big Dreaming, New York!"
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