|
|
Cosmos or Chaos?
"I paint in series, exploring repetition and dissimilarity within each group of canvases. I work slowly
with multiple layers, allowing gravity to direct the flow of paint. The paintings crack, drip and split. Each layer intersects with the previous.
Their dynamics reveal opposition and interplay between the vertical and the horizontal."
Julie Umerle
***
00 Nature
"As a student at Parsons School of Design, New York, in the late 90s, I became interested in fractals and chaos theory. The relationship between order and disorder has always been, and continues to be, central to my concerns as a painter.
At first my attention was drawn to the visual beauty and intricacy of the Mandelbrot set. I was amazed that scientists could find an underlying order in apparently random data. I thought about disorder in nature and natural fractals (coastlines, blood vessels, the structure of plants), comparing these with man made fractals (stock market prices, music, art). I began to consider the implications of order within chaos, and cause and effect within nature (does the flap of a butterfly‘s wings in Brazil really set off a Tornado in Texas?). Then I began to consider these ideas in relation to my work as an abstract painter, and to explore how I could use them within my practice as an artist.
In the last ten years I have become increasingly aware of how chaos theory plays out in universal terms, as more people become concerned with the direct consequences of their actions for the future of the planet."
Julie Umerle
From catalogue for the exhibition, '00 Nature', at Contemporary Art Projects, London, 2008.
***
"These paintings are literally what they are, and do not transcend their materiality,
nor transcend any aspect of them, but are seemingly factual and somehow in that
factualness constitute some sort of analogy, which is unordered, non-symbolic, just
happens, matter of fact. Literally if these paintings were to succeed we should be
able to say nothing about them. Here we have very much a series of decision-making,
and that's the matter of factness of them. We have decision after decision made
apparent, in which we know that there's constant intervention on the part of the artist."
Saul Ostrow, art critic and Chair of Visual Arts at Cleveland Institute of Art, USA.
From a conversation about Julie Umerle's work between Byron Kim, Regina Granne, Glenn Goldberg,
Mira Schor and Saul Ostrow at Parsons School of Design, New York, 1998.
***
"To call a painting 'Paragon' is a daring move but in many ways, in her works of that title, Julie Umerle offers up a perfect paradigm
for painting. The 'Paragon' paintings give us two spaces and, as in most of the recent work, one acts as a foil to the other. One side
of the canvas proposes an infinite space, a space to step into, to escape to, to retreat to. The other side situates the viewer firmly
in front of the work. The surface requires that you notice it - the paint thick with quartzsand keeps one at bay - you are in the present,
the here and now. The 'Paragon' paintings make us aware of our sublunary state - we are here but we want to be there. Something is in the way.
But perhaps we are glad of it."
Rebecca Fortnum, artist, writer, and curator (senior lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts, London).
From catalogue introduction to 'Julie Umerle : Recent Paintings',
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK. 1995.
|
|
