OSCILLATIONS

SeeSaw Gallery

5 W. Radcliff Avenue, Englewood, CO 80110

May 4-July 28, 2024

Curated by Hayley Schneider

Admission: free

Review by Dani/elle Cunningham

The latest exhibition at SeeSaw Gallery features four artists who unravel their connections to place and demonstrate the interplay between instinct and honed technical skills. While each brings a unique perspective to the show, curator Hayley Schneider expertly weaves together a cohesive and harmonious collection featuring Leslie Fitzsimmons, Jamie Gray, Ilan Gutin, and Autumn T. Thomas. The result is an atmosphere of serenity that ignites introspection, contemplation about the artmaking process, and commentary on the relationship between artists and their materials.

An installation view of the exhibition *OSCILLATIONS* at SeeSaw Gallery. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

The exhibition layout is carefully crafted to establish a sense of unity and distinction among the artists' works. Schneider avoids isolating each artist in their own separate spaces, instead intertwining their work to create shared conceptual and visual narratives. By showcasing multiple pieces from one artist alongside a selection from others, she creates permeable boundaries—delineating each artist’s unique relationship to their materials while allowing similar meanings to flow through formal elements like line and color.

Autumn T. Thomas, *Shadows of Pragmatic Ambiguity*, 2024, Bloodwood and concrete, 33 x 60 inches, each panel 33 x 28 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Autumn T. Thomas’s work exemplifies the exhibition’s celebration of materiality with her striking manipulation of wood and concrete. In Shadows of Pragmatic Ambiguity, she has carved elongated pieces of wood so that they curve, imbuing the rectangular work with the optical illusion of motion rippling up and down its surface. Using primarily untreated, exotic wood from regions significant to her, such as Senegal, Thomas powerfully connects to locations from which she believes her ancestors came.

Autumn T. Thomas, *Shadows of Pragmatic Ambiguity* (right panel detail), 2024, Bloodwood and concrete, 33 x 60 inches, each panel 33 x 28 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Centrally placing the untouched wood, Thomas allows it to command attention with its natural state—an act that mirrors the artist’s unabashed manner of presenting herself. [1] The same is true of the concrete components of the work, which she allows to crack, demonstrating the artist’s appreciation for the personality of her materials.

Autumn T. Thomas, *Contemporary ChiWara I*, 2023, Wenge wood, concrete, and copper, 21 x 17 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Modeled after ChiWara headdresses made by the Bambara people of Mali, Thomas’s three wood and concrete works Contemporary ChiWara I, Contemporary ChiWara II, and Contemporary ChiWara III again illustrate Thomas’s ability to transform the rigidity of her materials into fluid sculptures. Each rectangular piece of wood is cut to appear as though it curves and is fixed into concrete.

Autumn T. Thomas, *Contemporary ChiWara II*, 2023, African Mahogany wood, resin, concrete, and copper, 24 x 17 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Like all of Thomas’ work in this exhibition, these sculptures are what is needed in contemporary art, occupying many categories simultaneously: rustic yet elegant; forcibly shaped and technical yet intuitive; and meticulously designed yet spontaneous.

Jamie Gray, Oyster *Ladder*, 2023, wax and reclaimed wood, 20 x 7.5 inches and 24 x 8.5 inches, configurable set of 2. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Similarly, Jamie Gray begins much of her work with a foundation of reclaimed wood. Without a solid plan for the final shapes, Gray laboriously cuts the wooden substrate and then disguises it with scored wax and pigment. In this way, the artist gives discarded wood a second life, transmuting it into revered objects that appear fragile despite their sturdy core.

Jamie Gray, *Lolly Guard*, 2023, wax and pigment on reclaimed wood, 23 x 38 inches, reconfigurable set of 4. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Most of Gray’s sculptural, wall-hung works feature multiple small pieces that she intuitively arranges with only inches between each piece. Reminiscent of natural elements like leaves on a tree or pebbles in a stream, these works set the tranquil tone of this exhibition, using a soothing blue, green, and sunset-colored palette on modified ellipse shapes with symmetrical scoring.

Jamie Gray, *Seed Song*, 2024, wax and pigment on reclaimed wood, 36 x 66 inches, reconfigurable set of 13. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Seed Song is one such work and features thirteen leaf-like objects installed on either side of an invisible line, generating a meditative quality that balances with the intricacies of each object’s surface. Gray also presents several works on panel, articulating her appreciation for her materials as these are covered in scored, pigmented wax.

Leslie Fitzsimmons, *Abiquiu*, 2022, watercolor on 300gsm paper, 12 x 10 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

In Leslie Fitzsimmons's work, the artist connects to place through her materials, which is most apparent in four small watercolors: Questa, Chama, Abiquiu, and Taos. Referencing New Mexico through her color palette and Southwestern, altar-like compositions, the artist painted these works while living in Australia, producing a poignant longing in the work. [2]

Leslie Fitzsimmons, *Humility*, 2023, watercolor on 300gsm paper, 20 x 16 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Heavily inspired by nature, she alternates between tightly rendered forms, layered beside or on top of one another, and loose arrangements that feature as much white space as color. These distinctions hearken to her journeys into nature and her awareness of the “interconnectedness between nature and humans and the importance of a symbiotic relationship.” [3]

Leslie Fitzsimmons, *At the Watering Hole*, 2022, watercolor on 300gsm paper, 24.2 x 15.7 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

In At the Watering Hole, for instance, angular blue and green shapes seem to dance around the space, never touching, but cascading upwards into pale green and yellow forms. The borders between forms are obvious and yet neither white space nor painted form is weighted more heavily, creating visual harmony. Fitzsimmons varies between consistently and sporadically applied color, suggesting not only her expert manipulation of her medium but also her ability to turn off her spontaneity at the perfect moment.

Ilan Gutin, *Window Weaving #44*, 2023, cotton and polyester, 67 x 54 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Although Ilan Gutin has less of a literal hand in creating his works than the other artists, his presence, identity, and ability to transform materials are no less apparent. Based on Gutin’s experiences of looking combined with his observations of window screens and domestic textiles, these works begin as medium-sized screenprints featuring intuitive patterns, shapes, and lines.

Ilan Gutin, *Window Weaving #22*, 2024, cotton and polyester, 54 x 34 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Gutin then outsources the prints where they are digitally converted and woven on a Jacquard loom using cotton and polyester the artist selects, dyed in a moody, 1987 Macintosh monochrome. This color scheme stands out in Window Weaving #22 and Window Weaving #28, both of which feature vaguely rectangular shapes that tumble from top to bottom. These shapes are concealed behind loose, vertical patterns, alluding to Gutin’s interest in looking at and out of screens.

Ilan Gutin, *Window Weaving #28*, 2024, cotton and polyester, 54 x 34 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Used to mass produce textiles since the early 1800s, the Jacquard loom could presumably roll out dozens of Gutin’s textiles, but his decision to hold back—to generate unique rather than replicated objects within a specific framework—represents this exhibition’s assertive balancing between intuitively flowing and holding back.

Ilan Gutin, *Window Weaving #6*, 2023, cotton and polyester, 67 x 54 inches. Image courtesy of SeeSaw Gallery.

Gutin has made all the right decisions in these works, which are ultimately a hybrid of present and past technologies, epitomizing the experimental merger of digital and physical realms that many artists today engage in. The artist admits he doesn’t fully understand the technological side of his process, but his distance from the finished product only adds to the allure of the work, generating questions about the supremacy of product over process and vice versa. [4]

An installation view of Jamie Gray’s work (left) and Leslie Fitzsimmons’ work (right) in the exhibition *OSCILLATIONS* at SeeSaw Gallery. Image by *DARIA*.

In Gutin’s and all the artists’ works, processes are layered and fascinating, revealing the artists’ relationships to their materials and the world around them as well as their internal dialogues. Process doesn’t surpass the dynamism of the final artworks, though each stage of artmaking satisfies different creative impulses. Thomas insightfully sums up this idea, stating, “The final product is great, but that’s for other people. The process is for me.” [5]

Throughout each artist’s processes, they reveal as much about themselves as they do the lives of their materials. Whether engaging with technology or altering natural elements, Thomas, Gray, Fitzsimmons, and Gutin never inhibit the desires of their materials but act as conduits. The result is an animated yet peaceful exhibition that reflects a shared love of looking, the malleability of materials, and the pleasure of relating to objects in the world.

Dani/elle Cunningham (she/her) is an artist, scholar, and independent curator. She writes about science fiction, gender, sexuality, and disability, with an emphasis on mental illness. The co-founder of chant cooperative, an artist co-op, she holds a master’s degree in art history and museum studies from the University of Denver.

[1] From my conversation with Autumn T. Thomas on May 5, 2024.

[2] From my conversation with Hayley Shneider on May 5, 2024.

[3] Oscillations Catalogue, 2024, drive.google.com/file/d/1puUfFv9n27oiCkEMslXJ9s-_B6q9nrk7/view.

[4] From my conversation with Ilan Gutin on May 5, 2024.

[5] From my conversation with Autumn T. Thomas on May 5, 2024.