by Audra Lambert
featured image: Dana Nechmad, “Untitled” (Neshamot Series) Oil and acrylic on canvas, 39.5 x 59″ (2021)
On view through February 18th at FORMah Gallery (42 Allen Street,) “Emotional Landscapes”
encourages visitors to explore the world around them through the disparate experiences
depicted by artists Dana Nechmad, Adi Oren and Rives Wiley. Viewers are treated to dreamy
and conflicting visions of the emotional worlds we contain within ourselves, ready to burst and
emerge, manifesting in physical reality. Contrasting visions of humanity emerge in figures
dispersed through colorful, abstracted landscapes and stylistic portraits spanning the gallery.
Visitors can feel the exhilaration of soaring through the air and the tension of wrestling figures
just by scanning the paintings on view in “Emotional Landscapes.” The confident yet nuanced
brushstrokes and compelling juxtapositions contained in works on view evoke the multitudes we
contain within ourselves, struggling to emerge.
In revealing these inner emotional landscapes, each artist speaks to human aspiration and
ambition, addressing these aspects of our identities in decidedly individual ways. In Wiley’s
whimsical yet biting Photorealist paintings, figures appear disjointed: just barely contained within
their striking interior environments. Oren’s paintings of figures diving through abstract space
inspire the viewer. Works by Nechmad seem to speak to the struggles experienced by the
human spirit seeking out higher states of consciousness.
The combinations of representational and abstract elements contained throughout “Emotional
Landscapes” offers a bridge between the viewer and the range of emotions defining individual
lived experiences. Charged hues of vermillion and cornflower blue contain figures diving down
into the unknown, while blurred portraits fold unnaturally across bedroom walls and grappling
figures run around the bottom of an inverted bell curve. The range of figures and gestures offers
a thought-provoking reminder that we take the world around us and shape it to fit our own
interior worlds, hidden from view yet potently shaping our perspectives. Any guest experiencing
the show can find something that speaks to them on a psychological, spiritual or emotional
level.
The colorful and gripping Photorealistic imagery found in paintings by Rives Wiley titillate
visitors to “Emotional Landscapes.” Infused with aspirational imagery found throughout social
media and shown in stock images alike, Wiley offers a biting and humorous take on these
interior scenes – in some cases, literally turning them on their head. People, objects and
interiors seemingly collide across angles in the picture plane. This purposefully fragmented
imagery makes a stronger impression by its muted range of colors infusing the composition.
Wiley presents a decidedly contemporary take on how influencer culture creates worlds we
strive for: worlds which can often collide with our emotional and spiritual needs.
Artist Adi Oren explores life and its bountiful exuberance in her painterly compositions.
Movement and gesture permeate the figures of divers presented throughout the exhibit,
sometimes presented solo but shown at other times in compositions of multiple divers
suspended mid-air against a simple background filled with color. In isolating these figures often
seen among the hectic environment of international competitions, such as the Olympics, in
everyday life, the artist here can focus instead on their elegant presence and the precise
moment of launch out into space. By creating bold washes of color to envelop these figures,
Oren allows our sense of freedom and liberation to emerge, encouraging new explorations of
these powerful paintings. Oren’s surprising and eclectic juxtapositions offer an engaging means
for the visitor to confront and question the ways in which they themselves feel stifled or
liberated.
Works by Dana Nechmad present figures in spaces of isolation and conflict which give a nod to
the hidden realms that we as humans navigate in our everyday lives. Visual texture and fields
of charged color surround and delineate the presence of these figures across the picture plane.
The artist evokes what she calls a sense of ‘active contemplation’ in the modes by which she
frames these compositions. Paintings on view entice viewers with a sense of incomplete
narrative and ambiguous direction. Nechmad often delicately suffuses these canvases with
subtle shifts of hue and contrasting colors, offering a pathway toward deeper explorations of the
quixotic subject matter covered in the artist’s expansive paintings.
“Emotional Landscapes” opened on January 14, 2023, and remains on view at the FORMah
space at 42 Allen Street through February 4th. FORMah, or the FORM Art House, showcases
emerging and mid-career artists from across the globe. Through thoughtful programming and
innovative exhibitions, FORMah is committed to providing a platform for female artists. The
gallery space is located in the Lower East Side, NYC.
