Endless Planes

2-Person Exhibit
Julia Kottal & David Kupferman

Exhibit Dates: October 16 - December 5, 2020 (dates extended)
Facebook LIVE first look @ 5:00pm CST: WATCH
Virtual Reception with Julia: December 4th, 5:30pm CST, RSVP below
Video talk with David: announced soon

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Exhibit Info

Endless Planes

October 16 - December 5, 2020
2-Person Exhibit | Julia Kottal & David Kupferman

A plain is commonplace, and at times overlooked: a vast stretch of land or horizon. If the layer of earth with grasses, rocks and the distinct elements on the surface are removed, we’re left with a plane: a surface that extends infinitely. Endless Planes unifies these two artists’ works and combines similar visual themes, present in each of their art which underline the deconstruction of our inner or outer habitat. Abstracted scenes composed in grid-like structures contain the energy and vibrato of color in works on paper, canvas and board.

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Julia KOttal

Biography
Julia is a native mid-westerner, born in Michigan. She has studied art in Florida, Maryland and California before moving to Iowa in 1992. She has a B.A., with painting as her emphasis, from Coe College. She has work in various collections nationally, including Alliant Energy, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Coe College, Kirkwood Community College, University Miami of Ohio, Millhiser Smith, Terry, Lockridge and Dunn, and United Fire Group. She lives in Cedar Rapids with her husband Roy and sweet cat, Clark.

Statement
"For this body of work, I felt the exploration of color as an idea, and the feelings of loneliness as a place, were important. Going from three mediums of encaustics, watercolors and oil to convey those themes was a key element for completing the total group.

The watercolors are informed from two places -both of which were self-imposed isolation from before Covid-19: Baja, Mexico long term stays and our cottage on the lake in Wisconsin. It is intriguing to me how they both deliver the same feelings with similar results, within composition and within fluidity of the medium. I love the simplicity of the watercolors conveying the suggestion of landscape. They (WI and MX) are worlds apart culturally, but the areas draw me into their natural beauty in the same way. High Lake and the Sea of Cortez have personalities that change constantly. However, the natural beauty of the forest, hills and shores stay constant creating a nice contrast to the unsettled waters. At both places I painted plein air, so I became part of the story. I was alone on the shores, blissfully painting, using the water surrounding me.

The encaustics are from a trip to the Serengeti in Kenya, Africa last year. This was truly a humbling experience and I painted from photos after returning. The vastness of the plains, the alluring colors unobstructed by man-made anything, the seclusion, and the never-ending horizon is simply sublime. Questioning the ideas of solitude and loneliness and being able to convey this through the translucent, subtle layers of encaustic paint (beeswax, resin, and pigment), had an especially rewarding result for me.

Oil painting is my true love. I’m attracted to everything about it; implementing my quest of the idea of color, the movement of the pigment on the canvas, the way the gestural movement of the palette knife sculpts the paint and the way I can lose myself in a meditative state. I react to the materials and let them guide me to a place where the combined composition and narrative can live. I love to see, as I hope the viewer does, a surprise, or a moment that happens in my paintings, either while painting or after completion. It is important to me to keep some sense of traditional order in the landscape, but I also like to let the paint take on a life of its own and lead me to an end result that can be unexpected and seductive."

David Kupferman

Biography
David Kupferman’s work has spontaneous, gestural imagery that weave a tapestry of visions in a unique fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics and philosophy. He is a longtime resident of Fairfield, IA and spent many summers painting on Cape Cod. He was born in Boston and is the son of artists Ruth Cobb and Abstract Expressionist Lawrence Kupferman. He studied and apprenticed with his father, Head of the Dept. of Painting, at the Massachusetts College of Art and attended the University Of Wisconsin, Madison and MERU, Switzerland. Kupferman is in 15 museum collections and has had solo shows in 2 museums and over 40 galleries including NY, Boston and Chicago. He received major grants from the Pollock/Krasner and the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundations. He is in numerous private and public collections of hospitals, banks and corporations.

Statement
"My lyric abstract paintings are celebrations of the mystery, magnitude and dynamism of life, an expression of the infinite flow of light and the expansion of inner consciousness. They work on many levels simultaneously: unity in diversity, space and form, light and color, silence and movement, inner and outer awareness. They are informed by both Eastern and Western aesthetics and philosophy and integrates the two.

They are painted in a spontaneous manner, a kind of joyous improvisational duet with the rhythms of nature, a visual gospel of hymns singing the praise of nature and life. While painting, I listen to Indian Vedic hymns, Indian Ragas or improvisational jazz which helps move the flow of energy where you can feel the rhythms, pulse and vibrating waves of sound expressed in paint. My art becomes a spontaneous performance piece where I improvise along with the musicians as a visual player in the ensemble. The linear, geometric rectangular shapes act as windows or portals that help the viewer move in and out of the picture plane, flowing from outer perception to inner transcendence. They also act as a counterpointal balance to the free flowing gestural strokes of paint. Some of the paintings have references to sea and sky where the boundaries between landscapes and abstracts merge. The ocean and sky are symbols of the all encompassing, infinite flow and power of nature. Many of these paintings were done on or inspired by Cape Cod where sea light has a particular intensity with sublime atmospheric vibrations of lighted skies and rhythmically flowing waves, and also by the expansive Iowa skies over the Plains.

The paintings are both atmospheric and concrete, flowing back and forth between movement and stability. Each new painting is a joyous revelation creating a discrete world unto itself."

Exhibit Images