Spine, Crack, Transfigure: Work by Ben Seamons & Daniel Luedtke

In new works by Daniel Luedtke, negative shapes, cracks and edges demarcating walls, windows and bodies are remade and rearranged using painted and resin-treated surfaces resembling ceramic or metal. Figurative and abstract paintings, drawings and sculptures trace, index and exchange the dynamics of formal and narrative exclusion in order to recombine them within different hierarchies. Negative become positive and new negatives emerge. These formal mediations on the identity and character of difference generates space for unseen figures to appear.

Ben Seamons’ recent paintings depict human figures that arise out of a painting process that sets the subject matter and the paint on a collision course. The use of gestural abstraction in relationship to the figure conjures unanticipated moments where figures are caught in metaphysical experiences. The paint is the medium that transmits a kind of psychic reality and elicits themes of boundary dissolution: between material and spirit, the body and space; between the violent and the ecstatic, the concentrated and the diluted.

Chanel Thomas’ work acknowledges the Black community in efforts to expose and create awareness of common social and political issues and experiences. She often uses current and repressed events to create an emotional remembrance and a sense of empathy between her work and her audience. Through the use of fiber materials and mixed media, she creates an active voice for undermined truths.