PRESS RELEASE
Katznelson is a painter of abstractions that are presented on the wall in high relief. The works are colorful and protrude from their wood supports in a flurry of patterns of color and form that recall the bursting open of blossoms vibrating in the open air. Katznelson’s paintings are formed by the artist’s shaping of globules of acrylic and resin that he coaxes through mesh canvas. The color is pressed through in controlled waves of saturated hues forming puffs. Each is set alongside another, making up a grid of ruptured forms cracking open to reveal layers and layers of the history of their making. These pompoms of pure color are formed virtually in the artist’s hands and set in place with great care. The method of building the works results in compositions, that while controlled, are irregular and shifting, upsetting the formality of the grid in wonderful ways.
Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog with an essay by Michaël Amy. Amy describes the works, in part, as follows:
The balls of medium, tightly squeezed one against the other so that straight lines obtain between the organic shapes, suggest fruit too tightly packed together and bursting with ripeness – a metaphor for abundance. The hairy surfaces and exposed flesh of the fruit -bulging forward, as well as outward along the periphery of the composition- hint at delicacy and sensuality, and thus at the erotic appeal and vulnerability of living bodies. Look again, and the lush forms intimate at marine life or stones, chemical processes or nuclear fission. Some works are as welcoming as plush armchairs; others are more unsettling. Vadim Katznelson manages to evoke a range of emotions and sensations, as he reaches for his own vision of beauty, without giving it all away.