December 1 - December 22, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 3, 2015, 6-8 pm
Helgi Gíslason’s works cover a broad range of techniques and materials from feathery pencil drawings on paper to sculptures that show the strength and delicacy of bronze and iron. His drawings balance light and darks, with traces of the artist’s hand animating even a black background. In his iron pieces, the artist creates networks of intersecting lines and curlicues that seem to defy gravity on one hand, while on the other they are joined to heavy pieces of metal that ground them and set up a sense of contrast that gives each work energy and movement.
That sense of juxtaposing opposites is also strongly prevalent in Gíslason’s bronze pieces. He calls bronze an “inherently paradoxical” material, one that is soft and flexible, yet also has a powerful weight and presence. His bronze sculptures take solid forms and twist them in unexpected directions or create gaps in their surfaces that allow air to peek through. “My vision is to work with my sculptures in twilight between dream and reality,” he says, and his strong technique brings that vision to life.
Agora Gallery
530 West 25th Street, New York, NY
http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/helgi_g%C3%ADslason.aspx
http://www.agora-gallery.com/ExhibitionAnnouncement/Persistence_12_1_2015.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ0dEWiUgig
http://www.agora-gallery.com/advice/blog/2015/12/08/brazen-images-making-bronze-sculptures/