Summerscapes | Kirsten Tradowsky, Erika Lee Sears & Stephen Ormandy
Maybaum Gallery is pleased to present Summerscapes, a curated collection of works by Kirsten Tradowsky, Erika Lee Sears, and Stephen Ormandy representing the joys of summer. Pool scenes, fresh fruit, and rainbow infused sculpture remind us to slow down, have fun, and enjoy the moment.
Kirsten Tradowsky
In my recent paintings, I sifted through my collection of vintage poolside photos and selected imagery that depicts lazy, seemingly perfect moments of people gathering. I chose to make some of the paintings more vibrant and acidic, emphasizing colors similar to the Kodachrome photography of the past. Others are more monochromatic, mimicking the fading of time and revealing the veil between the past and the present.
There is a vacancy between you as the viewer and these settings. The poolsides seem artificial in our contemporary world. In painting these scenes, I wish to convey a haunting polarity between somewhere tactile and familiar and somewhere uncharted. They become surreal spaces that launch the viewer's eye into a journey of fluctuation. Based on the tradition of wading by the poolside and unwinding with friends, I wish for the viewer to be able to swim in and out of these places of simplicity and mystery.
Erika Lee Sears
I have devoted every day of my life to art and have carved a place for it in my daily routine. It’s in my everyday that we see our everyday. My still-lifes reflect moments of joy, peace, simplicity, and even humor in an otherwise chaotic world. Moments that I am deliberately taking the time to savor and commemorate. Moments that may otherwise be overlooked and lost. The whimsical broad brushstrokes accentuate the ephemerality of time and exhibit a mastery of what’s essential to the story. Each vignette is a reminder to stop and smell the roses… every day.
Stephen Ormandy
I’m looking for vibration and rhythm, the play of line creating positive and negative space, searching for tonal balance through contrast or harmony, while developing chroma relationships that hug or repel. I am inspired by the natural world and informed by a strong design aesthetic based on color and form. There is a discernible dialogue between my large-scale oil paintings and sculptural work, with line, shape and surface each informing the other.
