Elisa Contemporary Art is proud to present Structured Spaces featuring four contemporary artists exploring strong lines, geometric shapes and bold color to create architecturally driven worlds. From the simplistic to the acutely detailed, our artists create internal spaces and external worlds that invite the viewer in to explore, discover, walk and wander.

The everyday scenes of Marfa artist, Martha Hughes debuting for the first time with Elisa Contemporary Art, are familiar, yet filled with unusual perspectives and strong colors. The spaces are defined with walls, halls and windows, yet simultaneously ambiguous, slightly unsettling and altogether new. Martha starts each piece in Adobe Illustrator to explore shapes and colors before continuing her final exploration in paint.

Hawaii artist, Jason Wright contrasts the soft lines of the sky against the hard lines of the earth to create his complex perspectives. The results are startlingly haunting skylines and dream-like landscapes. These pared down images are portrayed in a graphic style with precise shapes, bold lines and intense colors. Layer by layer using a palette knife, he provides just enough detail in his play on the theory of shelter and landscapes.

Turkish artist, Yasemin Kackar-Demirel explores the rise and fall of places. She juxtaposes nature with urban environments, carefully shifting between abstraction and representation. Her worlds are created through fragmentation and connection – the reconstruction of places and buildings, while simultaneously destroying them.

Colombian artist, Alexis Duque creates architecturally detailed drawings inspired by real skyscrapers including the Chrysler Building, Empire State, Flatiron and other landmarks to build his fantastic buildings, cities and metropolises. Working from hundreds of photographs, Alexis details each element of these majestic edifices. The result is cities where structures are idealized and transcendent beauty is worn on the exterior of each edifice.

• What: Structured Spaces
• When: April 26 – July 26, 2014
• Special Event:
• Reception: Wednesday, June 4 from 6-8pm
• Where: Elisa Contemporary Art, 5622 Mosholu Avenue (near 256th Street), Riverdale NY 10471.
• Hours: Saturday 11 am – 5 pm and by Appointment


Here is a walk around tour and interview by Ardina Seward of Hamlethub:



Meet the Artists:

Alexis Duque
Alexis Duque was born in Colombia 1971, he currently lives and works in New York. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Antioquia, Colombia. His works rely on just a few colors. Notwithstanding the use of acrylic paint, he makes the influence of illustration apparent, equally attending to all of the aspects of the painted surface without leaving anything to chance. The Colombian artist introduces architectural features that are characteristic of the Western Civilization, from ancient Greece and Rome: columns, capitals, and niches. They are symbols of the bygone ruling culture and the aesthetic model of the European colonizers, now an integral part of daily life of the populations of Latin America.

His work has been exhibited in numerous venues including: at El Museo del Barrio, The Drawing Center and Praxis International Gallery in New York; The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA; Champion Contemporary, Austin, TX; RudolfV Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Galleri Oxholm in Copenhagen, Denmark. Duque’s work has been featured in several publications, including: Blue Canvas Magazine, LandEscape Art review, Beautiful Decay, Artistaday, New American Paintings, Studio Visit Magazine, The East Hampton Star, The East Hampton Press and El Diario of New York.

Martha Hughes
Martha Hughes lives and works in Marfa, Texas. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Texas, Austin. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions across the USA. In addition to painting, Hughes works in photography and computer-based media.

Yasmin Kackar-Demirel
Yasemin Kackar-Demirel was born in Istanbul, received her MFA in DeKalb (IL), and currently lives in New York. Her work is a fragmented and reconstructed journey through the places she has lived and traveled, both real and imagined.

According to Yasemin: “Through my paintings, drawings and installations, I portray my reminiscences of places, which I then transform onto the image?s surface by colors, shapes and patterns. I believe every place and every memory of a place is fragmental and can be broken down to its constituents. Taken out of their context, reconstructing and remapping elements that I once personally experienced enables me to express abstracted narratives.”

Her work has been exhibited throughout the US and Turkey.

Jason Wright
Jason Wright was born in the United States (1975). He studied Painting and Graphic Design at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. Jason was immersed in art from a young age, illustrating and designing graphics for the surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding industry. Apart from his current body of work, he is an accomplished mix media painter, as well as a medaled action sports athlete.

His current work focuses on the theory of shelter, and explores the relationship between the simplistic shape of a home and it's ever presence in our lives, his work is generally rendered in a dusk, dawn, or full moon setting. Wright’s passion for HDR and long exposure photography is showcased in his dramatic skies. His mediums are mainly oil and acrylic, painted with a palette knife.

Wright, who resides in Kona, Hawaii, has exhibited throughout the United States. Wright is represented in public and private collections.