MIT Office of the Arts 
(Published in Tech Talk 4/10/1995)
Works by 10 artists from California, New York and the Boston area who explore a range of approaches to contemporary painting are featured in the final exhibition of the List Visual Arts Center's 10th anniversary season, "Face to Face: Recent Abstract Painting."
The exhibition opens with a reception attended by the participating artists on Friday, April 12, 1995, from 5-7pm at the List Center's galleries, located on the first floor of the Wiesner Building (E15). The exhibition will continue through June 30, 1995.
"Most recent art has involved overt social and political topics and has included text or recognizable, often media-based imagery," says List Center director Katy Kline. "How is looking at painting without immediate external reference a different experience for the viewer?" While the exhibition makes no claim for comprehensiveness, the variety of strategies employed by the participating artists demonstrate the vitality and relevance of abstraction as it approaches its centennial.
April Hankins' (MA) deft mathematics inject a freshness into the tradition of systematic markmaking. Frandra Chang's hard-edged geometries defy hardnosed analysis in both their mysterious process of production and their equally mysterious effect. David Ortin's geometric shapes find their voices in the bold clarity of primary colors even as they loosen and complicate their contours. Sandy Walker revivifies the tradition of expressionist paining as arena of self-encounter. Jo Ann Rothschild also is driven to create spaces and situations "in which we append ourselves."
The previous history of abstract painting is a well-stocked hunting ground for virtually all of these artists; Shirley Kaneda and Fabian Marcaccio are perhaps the most forthright in their self-conscious pillaging of motifs and devices to new and sassy effect. Dona Nelson gives herself over to the risky unpredictability of her materials, free- associating as she scavenges from earlier painters and other abstract traditions. The paradoxical inexhaustibility of single-color painting is demonstrated by the smart, handsome and oddly moving conceptual panels of Byron Kim. Prudencio Irazabal's magical monochromes belie the literalism of the many superimposed paint layers he leaves exposed along the edges.
The List Visual Arts Center will publish a 32-page catalog to accompany Face to Face, including an introductory essay, full-color reproductions and individual written entries, biographies and bibliographic information on each artist.
On Saturday, April 13, 1995 at 2pm, curators Ron Platt and Helaine Posner will lead an informal discussion in the galleries with artists April Hankins, Byron Kim and Fabian Marcaccio. In addition, the curators will lead gallery talks of the exhibition on Saturday, May 18, at 2pm and on Wednesday, June 5, at 6:30pm.
The List Center is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from noon-6pm, Wednesdays from noon-8pm and weekends from 1-5pm; it is closed on holidays. On Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30pm, the curatorial staff holds informal discussions and answers questions. For more information, call 253-4680.