Explorations in Process: Will Insley, Nobuho Nagasawa, Alan Steele, Roger Welch

Westwood Gallery NYC was pleased to present Explorations in Process, a group show exhibiting the extraordinary work of four gallery artists whose conceptual themes pervade paintings, drawings, sculpture, installation, and works on paper. The artworks on view utilize process over four artistic periods including: conceptualism, installation art, geometric abstraction, and narrative art.

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On view is an installation of 1970s wall fragment paintings by Will Insley which are created with more concern for form than color. Instead of utilizing canvas, Insley constructed his paintings with architectural materials to further accentuate their fragmentary subdivision from the grid. The paintings are exhibited together with an additional wall fragment painting from the 1990s representing mathematically slipped space throughout Insley’s lifelong art project of ONECITY.

Nobuho Nagasawa’s woven, optical fiber works highlight time, process, and community participation in her transfiguration of natural elements to dynamic installations. For this exhibition, photography from six recent installations will be shown with Umi-hotaru (Sea Firefly) (2013) from her installation, Umi no Utsuwa (Voyage through the Void) (2013), first presented at the Setouchi Triennial in Shodoshima, Japan. The sea firefly is symbolic of protecting the natural environment in Japan; Umi-hotaru was the precursor to Umi no Utsuwa which holds dual meaning in Japanese as both a vessel (container) of the sea and a vessel (womb) of birth/life.

Three painted constructions by Alan Steele from three separate periods of his artistic career will also be on view. Following in the footsteps of minimalism, conceptualism, and the shaped painting movement, Steele formulates precise fragments suggesting the abstraction of a greater structure. The imagination of the whole is simultaneous with its ruin and removal.

The artworks by Roger Welch are part of his ‘Memory Map’ performances where he pioneered the application of conceptual thought to the Narrative Art movement at the John Gibson Gallery. For this exhibition, Welch will bring back his 16-foot diptych, Ruth Elliot Memory Map (1973), created on the first of four occasions of his ‘Memory Map’ performances. The diptych will be available for acquisition for the first time since being deaccessioned from the collection of art dealer Holly Solomon. The work will be exhibited alongside video documentation of Welch’s 1973 performance.