Barbara Hatfield & Rudolph Serra: out in the open

curated by allyson spellacy

FiveMyles is delighted to present a dual exhibition of Barbara Hatfield and Rudolph Serra, two New Yorker identifying artists, hailing from the mid-west and bay area – respectively – committedly entrenched in the Gowanus and Soho neighborhoods (and beyond) where they keep busy studios.

Hatfield has a keen eye for the vastness of landscape – both pastoral and psychological - even an ink swipe across a toothy page is loaded with panorama; Serra’s oceanic immersiveness (literally – as a lifetime surfer) teases out a nautical language that manifests itself in objects calling to mind a beach roam – whether in Sag Harbor or by the Hudson River. This exhibition focuses on multi-faceted practices enjoyed by two artists who navigate as comfortably across painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and photography, as they move through landscape and seascape, observing and absorbing felt experience vis a vis Open Air.

Barbara Hatfield’s energetic yet subtle paintings unfold in organic waves that belie a geometric bedrock upon which they are often based. She has described her impetus as “work that grounds and allows a connection with the elemental. At the same time, I’m occasionally allowed a glance into the metaphysical …”. Hatfield’s careful observation of inner and outer environs imparts perspective through cinematic captures of striking stormy weather - a persistent photographic exercise, as well as panel washes produced back at the studio that elaborate on big sky drama. In this current exhibition (the artist’s second at FiveMyles) photos and paintings are offset with delicate drawings and monotypes that reveal Hatfield’s interest in “inquiry, energy, frequency and tone … an exploration that invites an experience of simultaneous intimacy and immensity.”

Rudolph Serra experiments with sculptural forms, shapes, lines, and volumes in this recent group of carved, white sculptural wall reliefs. Encountering these curling, swirling contours in space is like unearthing the perfect rock or the ideal seashell. Serra’s surface-mounted frieze read as script -- a secret language – left to right or right to left. His combination of concave, convex, spherical, elliptical, and rounded forms cohere to create symbolic characters — asemic writing — that have no specific content. Serra leaves the work gracefully unmarked. “I’m not giving directions; I’m providing a place to ponder, to find enjoyment.” The accompanying prints in “Out in the Open” echo the artist’s sculpture. In each dynamic unique print, Serra creates a dramatic "push and pull" of shapes by switching white for black, foreground for background and positive for negative forms.

Barbara Hatfield and Rudolph Serra are close counterparts in their explorations and experiments with the tradition and deconstruction of plein-air activity; brought together here for the first time their hybrid intentions and influences result in textured, meditative actions that reveal and oblige – actual and super natural space.

about the artists:

Barbara Hatfield has presented solo exhibitions in New York, Minnesota and North Dakota. Her work is in numerous private collections in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, France and Germany and in the permanent collection of the North Dakota Museum of Art. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Rudolph Serra is the recent recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award and has received Pollock Krasner and three National Endowment for the Arts grants. He has featured in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco Art Institute, Queens Museum, and the Nassau County Museum of Art.

about the curator:

Allyson Spellacy is a New York based curator who has served on the board of FiveMyles since 2018. Her current exhibition “Ketuta Alexi-Meshishvili & Carrie Yamaoka” at Galerie Hubert Winter is part of Vienna’s “Curated by …” festival on view September – November 2023.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Crystal Hudson, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.