FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

BEVERLY PEPPER

Natura Naturans: A Survey

 

December 5, 1997 - January 17, 1998

 

 

 

The Charles Cowles Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by BEVERLY PEPPER from December 5th, 1997 through January 17th, 1998.  The Gallery is located at 420 West Broadway between Prince and Spring Streets.  The Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm.  There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, December 4th, from 4 to 6pm.  The gallery will be closed for the holidays.

 

 

The title of BEVERLY PEPPER's latest series, Natura Naturans, refers to a nature devoid of human influence.  These paintings are a response to the surroundings of her studio in Todi, Italy.  Typically, PEPPER's paintings have depicted landscape in a more identifiable manner, recognizable by their use of horizon, depth, and perspective.  The Natura Naturans works are mottled and pitted with various textures created by mixing and burnishing materials such as cement, cloth, and even styrofoam together with oil paint.  The effect is a more deeply abstracted and direct evocation of landscape; one that is literal in a tactile and intuitive sense rather than a representation rooted in traditional two-dimensional renderings.

 

 

Known for her totemic, minimalist sculpture, BEVERLY PEPPER has synthesized the aesthetic vision of her steel sculpture with her expressive oil paintings, while continuing to imbue the paintings with the luscious color and surface of her earlier work.  Along with the most recent series of paintings will be several paintings and wall reliefs created over the last few years.  The wall reliefs particularly reinforce the bridge between PEPPER's sculpture and painting, while the earlier paintings underscore the evolution of her work from her Odyssey Series to Natura Naturans.

 

 

BEVERLY PEPPER has shown extensively throughout the United States and Europe.  Her work is included in many major private and public collections including:  the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence.

 

 

 

For further information or photographs, please call (212) 925-3500.