The Thin Line

CINNABAR is pleased to present "The Thin Line" curated by Pamela Auchincloss/ELEVEN+ opening Thursday, September 3rd and on view through Saturday, November 15th.   

Of everything we capture and experience visually the origin resides in a line. Words, nature,the body, architecture, an image. With the first outline, whether straight or curved, we begin to decipher, to understand what is to be known about what we see.  There are signifiers in the line, as well, an underlying resonance that cues our emotions, intuition, and intellect.

The seven women artists selected for this exhibition have an abiding practice that weaves through and arcs over the principal of the line. Their countenance conjures notions of stillness, nature, urbanity, restraint, impulse, chaos, and peace. Each one orders space and form in a distinct manner, some playing with an illusion of dimensionality, others remaining dedicated to the true two-dimensional character of the subject.

Throughout, however, little changes. There is a beginning and an end. We start, we follow, we learn. The premise of this show is concurrently about the austere beauty of the gesture alongside what is embedded in human character. Heinrich Von Kliest wrote in his short essay titled "On the Marionette Theater" the line that animates the puppet is a far more complex metaphor. "The line the centre of gravity has to follow is indeed very simple.... But, seen from another point of view, this line could be something mysterious. ...affectation is seen, as you know, when the soul, or moving force, appears at some point other than the centre of gravity." Von Kleist covers grace, origins of the soul, loss of innocence, vanity, and god in his sweeping point/counterpoint essay.

Each of these women have/had extraordinary lives. Each one merges the literal with abstraction. And each one makes work that moves seamlessly from the intimate to the universal.

Pamela Auchincloss has been a force in the art world for over 30 years starting with her own galleries in California and then New York to be followed by ten years organizing and circulating museum exhibitions through her company ARTSMS. In 2004 she was enlisted to start the only international art fund centered on artists' interests, Artist Pension Trust, ultimately running the company as CEO for four years. She founded ELEVEN+ in 2012, an international collective of eleven women curators focused on new curatorial and entrepreneurial models for art, culture, and business.