Axial @ B. Rogers Gallery in September

Artwork by Naomi Abrams Reinstein; September 4-27
In the artists own words:

In 1974 Frank Stella visited the Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA). The show was outstanding-thickly built canvases, geometric forms and lots of color – really amazing work. Stella had been invited to Portland to speak about this work; but when he came to the front of the crowd, he pointed to his work and said something to the effect, “Here it is, you can see it.”

With Stella as my guide, I will keep this brief.

An axis can be real or an imagined straight line, around which parts of a thing, system, etc. are arranged in a hoped for balanced way. In trying to find this balance, we measure everything in our lives, our loves, our bodies, our education – everything – with created symbols that represent societal standards. The symbols can be shapes, numbers, words, or measured looks. The standards consume us and the symbols can be confusing, forcing us to make judgments that are not always correct – not always in balance.

In these pieces I have used basic recognizable geometric shapes and symbols in combination with textures to create narrative collage pieces that are arranged on an axis. The conflict in the pieces arise in the way individual segments tug at the axis line and reflect what happens in all of our lives.

B. Rogers Gallery/Plan B
2415 NE Broadway.
503-236-0600.
Thursday-Saturday, 11-6
Sundays 12-5.