Beschreibung:

Ned Vena Untitled 2010 Rustoleum flat white enamel on linen 96 x 36 in. (243.8 x 91.4 cm.) Signed and dated "Vena 2010" along the overlap.
Provenance Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Rachel Uffner Gallery, Summer Whites, Curated by Eddie Martinez and Sam Moyer, June 24 – July 29, 2011 Catalogue Essay “I see abstract painting as visual language, like a conversation the artist is having with the canvas, where decisions are evident and execution is important.” - Ned Vena Ned Vena’s favorite painting is Frank Stella’s 1959 Die Fahne Huch!, primarily because of its “symmetry, its boldness and also its use of enamel paint,” (Vena in conversation with Ellen Mara De Wachter, PAINTINGS from the ZABLUDOWICZ COLLECTION, exh. cat., 2013). Indeed, all of these elements are clearly evident in Vena’s body of work. Ned Vena’s white paintings made their premiere in both New York and Los Angeles in 2011. Composed of linen coated in Rustoleum, a layer of vinyl is utilized as a stencil and is painted over with flat white enamel. The vinyl is ultimately removed, revealing delicate subtle stripes. As Vena explains, “Vinyl is a material from the commercial signage industry. I was looking at materials in urban spaces, communicating and using language. I worked for a sign maker when I first moved to NYC, so I was aware of the use of vinyl in the production of signs. All these materials end up in the same space, in cities, outside, conveying information.” (Vena in conversation with Ellen Mara De Wachter, PAINTINGS from the ZABLUDOWICZ COLLECTION, exh. cat., 2013) Vena’s “simple stripe pattern” is generated from computer forms of two vinyl stencils. As the artist explains, “I lay down each vinyl file as a large sheet onto the aluminum or whatever surface it may be, and as it is adhering to the surface, I create kinks, bends and tears in the sheet. These kinks replicate an idea of gesture for me. They are strikes or marks across the surface of a pattern, similar to a brushstroke, but arrived at in a pattern that invokes digital files, industrial processes, and ultimately a failure in application.” (Vena in conversation with Ellen Mara De Wachter, PAINTINGS from the ZABLUDOWICZ COLLECTION, exh. cat., 2013) The present work illustrates the intricacy of this process and the visual outcome of two materials and techniques meeting, interacting and separating, which delivers the residue of sophisticated, almost classical, white ridges or fluting on the image surface. Read More