The Introducing Series, an initiative that creates a platform for emerging artists to be formally introduced by an advocate of their art and future career. Twice a month a new artist will be presented by their champion and will have an exemplary piece of work exhibited at The Window at 125.

 MARTHA CLIPPINGER

Introduced by Bridget Donlon

 

By combining scraps of wood, fabric, and other found objects, Martha Clippinger constructs abstract paintings that have a ‘rough around the edges’ quality. She embraces the inherent imperfections of the materials to emphasize the works’ off-kilter geometries and irregular symmetries. Clippinger installs the completed works in such a way that the paintings engage the wall and the surrounding architecture, forcing the viewer to actively look and examine in order to discover the works. Through both her intuitive process and the viewers’ encounters of the finished works, she explores modes of perception and sensation.

A conversation about art with Martha Clippinger touches on every corner of art history, from Outsider Folk Art to the masters of Impressionism to late twentieth century Abstraction, everything in between and beyond. Her work regards these disparate histories while forging a practice that defies classification. Martha’s works, paintings on assemblages of found wood, are sculptural by nature but at heart are the work of a painter. Her work is generous, joyful, and intellectually rigorous, and I knew that Martha would embrace the opportunity to install a site-specific artwork with gusto. She will create a work of art that engages the entirety of the physical space and the viewers with equal intent.

-Bridget Donlon

Martha Clippinger grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and it was there that she experienced the art of regional eccentric artists. She left the South to study Art History at Fordham University and later went on to receive her MFA from Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers. She was awarded a studio space through the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in 2010, and this past summer she was an Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She currently lives and works in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn where she is the creator and organizer of the alternative art space, The Dirty Dirty. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions across the country.

Bridget Donlon is the Program Manager at Dieu Donné, a non-profit artist workspace dedicated to the creation, preservation, and promotion of contemporary artworks in handmade paper. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths College, University of London and a BA from Fordham University. She has worked professionally for Galerie Lelong, New York, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, and was a curatorial intern for the exhibition Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: Constructing a New World at Tate Modern, London. She has independently curated exhibitions in New York and London and has contributed essays to catalogs for international exhibitions.

This piece will occupy The Window at 125 from November 1-15th 2012

To accompany the work in the window space, a celebration of each artist and the formal introduction will take place in the form of a conversation between the champion and artist. They are posted in its entirety every two weeks on rogersmithlife.com. For more information visit www.rogersmithlife.com or email Danika Druttman at danika@rogersmith.com.