In her sixth solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, Robin Mitchell continues a line of visual thinking that has progressed and evolved throughout her previous bodies of work. Characterized by obsessive, stich-like brushstrokes that swirl in vibrant concentric patterns, her paintings pulse with highly active relationships that suggest, as the artist says, “breathing in and out….and the throb of a beating heart.” In fact, her organically patterned forms recall the dynamic natural geometries found in the drawings of German biologist, Ernst Haeckel. Artist and Art Critic, Constance Mallinson, has also noted parallels to “Egyptian hieroglyphics and stylized decorative borders, Eastern Mandalas, early Modernist abstraction or popular 50s design motifs.” Thus, Mitchell’s complex and multi-layered compositions result in an overlap of the abstract, the representational, the referential, and the evocative.

Nancy Monk’s playfully fresh, inventive, and wisely naïve approach to creation always surprises with its sheer joy and unaffected simplicity. She has acknowledged formal inspiration to Paul Klee and Yves Klein, but her almost childlike sense of discovery is inspiring in its originality. The title of this exhibition, twelve by nine, references the dimensions of the works, a commitment she made so as not to be distracted by further choices of scale or format. Her images, often trees, flowers, or curious shapes sprouting stick-like feet, are created by combining paint, collage, miniature reproductions of her own works, and even an odd tiny cashmere sweater that was shrunk to an unbelievably small size. All of Monk’s previous exhibitions at Craig Krull Gallery have explored a single color theme, some have been black, others pale blue, while this exhibition is almost exclusively yellow and white.