Net : Lauren Collings & Sarah McDougald Kohn

Net
Lauren Collings
Sarah McDougald Kohn
January 8th - February 13th, 2022
Net is an exhibition that brings together two artists who use systems of repetition as a cohesive element against chaos. Sarah McDougald Kohn and Lauren Collings practice experimentation to hover in the unwieldy realm of the organic. Both artists rein it in by incorporating repetition: whether it is chains and braids or stripes and dots, the pattern acts like a net: containing the amorphous field as parts poke out through the holes.
Sarah McDougald Kohn's sculptures borrow methods of textile production and craft to examine objects with complex histories: chains, braids, and nets. These elements all exemplify the way a single gesture, object, or component can be wholly transformed through its repetition or grouping. "Much of this work stems from a project I called Boards and Braids. In each sculpture, I explore what can be done with a piece of wood and an element of line. By using methods of repetition, the process of making each piece is intrinsic to the resulting product. The pieces feel like drawings to me, the unpredictable residual products of shapes and lines."
Lauren Collings's background in life drawing influences the abstract paintings she creates today. Her fascination with science and the natural world drives the experimental approach she takes to oil painting. "With this new body of work I made drawings into paintings so that I could trap a special kind of light inside the edges of the canvas. A slim rind of paint forms and encrusts over little goosebumps, sometimes sparking into a flame that gurgles between the brush tips until it's all over."
McDougald Kohn and Collings both bring playfulness and a sense of humor to their work. Each lively form seems to take on a character. Extrusions and protrusions become corporeal and amorphous giving way to an uncanny familiarity.
Curated by Liz Ainslie