Bridgehampton, January 20th, 2023 | Markel Fine Arts and HLK Art Group are pleased to present LUX INTERNA: An Invitation featuring six women Contemporary artists who articulate new and ancient healing pathways through their respective artistic practices. Ranging from painting to sculpture, the exhibition explores notions of transcendence, ritual, and meditation. The artists who live or work on the East End include: Stephanie Joyce, Mary Boochever, Sylvia Hommert, Pipi Deer, Anna Cléjan and Beata Pankiewicz. In addition, the artists have collaborated to present interactive healing experiences for visitors in an effort to normalize art as a catalyst to aid mental health and wellness.
LUX INTERNA aims to provide ataraxy and respite during the winter months to the community at large and serve as a space to process feelings of reflection, restoration and renewal. Curated by Heidi Lee Komaromi, the concept was a result of thinking about creative ways to address the mental health crisis brought on by effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Kathryn Markel states, “So many of us are in need of finding an inner peace these days and the artists presented in Lux Interna emphasize a slow meditative artistic practice that encourages a communal healing. We’re thrilled to be able to bring their talents to the community.”
On the ground level, mystical minimalist paintings by Mary Boochever will be on view alongside ephemeral assemblages and watercolors by Stephanie Joyce who willalso erect a reading nook with her poetry for visitors to pause and reflect. Also on the ground floor, an array of golden “sunburst” resin paintings by Sylvia Hommert anda thoughtful selection of Anna Cléjan’s clay ceramics often used in her ceremonial blessings will be on view.
In the upstairs left room is Boochever’s Chromolume Room, a recreation of a nineteenth century chromotherapy invention by American physician and early pioneer of chromotherapy, Dr. Edwin Babbitt. Visitors are welcome to sit and relax in a bath of primary colors and natural light. A meditation-based painting by Beata Pankiewicz completes the room. In the adjacent room, Pipi Deer’s Sri Yantra cosmogenesis painting alongside a self portrait based on the artist’s work in ancestral journeys will be on view.
As a special gift, Pipi Deer and Anna Cléjanwill each contribute experiences devoted to healing. Deer will host hands-on sessions in a womb-like room upstairs paired with Tibetan music. Cléjan will close the opening ceremony by conducting an interactive blessing outdoors in the garden. In addition, a mandala-making circleeventled by Joyce and Hommert will be held later in the month.
The exhibition will commence in the early afternoon with a “slow opening” to allow for longer, more intimate conversations around art. Curator Heidi Lee-Komaromi remarks, “Lux Interna is an invitation to experience art in a new way–slowly.” She further stated, “When presented in a certain way art can lead to a healing experience through meditation and transcendence.” Guests are invited to decelerate and absorb the art for as long as they please. Hot sweet masala Chai is sponsored by moji masala®.
According to Lee-Komaromi, Slow Art should be seen as an accessible experience that is more participatory than passive. Arden Reed, professor and author of Slow Art: The Experience of Looking, Sacred Images to James Turrell, wrote, “Maybe in a secular age Slow Art can give us the kind of consolation that everyone is looking for…Art, as opposed to entertainment, is that which rewards lingering, “slow” attention and thought.”
The title Lux Interna, was inspired by Mary Boochever’s painting of the same name rooted in her studies of Kabbalah. The title refers to the light, or power that lies within us.
A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the not-for-profit Hope for Depression Research Foundation (HDRF) founded by Audrey Gruss.
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On view at Markel Fine Arts, 2418 Montauk Hwy, Bridgehampton, NY 11932, Hours: Friday-Sunday, 11am–5pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, Feb. 11th, 1-4pm. On view until March 18th.
Contact: heidi@hlkartgroup.com
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
MARY BOOCHEVER: Boochever’s visual practice is deeply rooted in a belief in art’s capacity to engage viewers in a contemplative experience through sheer power of color and form. She has developed her own color language which draws on different sources such as the Kabbalah and Goethe’s Theory of Colors. She harnesses the formal elements of painting, specifically color and form, to transcend the viewer beyond the confines of the canvas untethered from any recognizable references to the physical world. Her delicately painted surfaces dissolve into moving fields of shifting color and light. In the words of Susan Stoops, “Boochever’s artworks allow one to pass into an awareness of endless possibilities”
STEPHANIE JOYCE: The landscapes, symbols and organic forms that emerge in Joyce’s work mirror life and offer a call to reflect and nurture the soul. A range of materials have been transformed and repurposed so that they transcend definition and traditions. The outcome is an experience which enters a mystical realm where ritual, genealogy and anthropological roots are explored.
SYLVIA HOMMERT: Harnessing light and its shadows and reflections are the base of Hommert’s practice. She is intrigued by lights profound effects on one’s environment, internal or external. Her delicately worked resin paintings become elusive, full of movement, ever changing. The luminous surfaces of each painting–-the shadows and relief–play off each other as color subtly shifts. The light too, moves through the canvas creating the illusion of sunrise merging into sunset. She sees the works as sundials that clock both physical movement and the passage of time.
PIPI DEER: Deer’s painterly images unveil layers of emotion within the everyday. The stories implicit in a wooden stool, an unmade bed, a strand of light, are fixed for eternity. Her photographs play at the gateway where the spiritual and the material meet–an ancient forest, a Parisian graveyard, a fallen teepee. She employs polaroids, lomo, diana, holga, leica m-8, cell phones, underwater disposable and film (super-8).
ANNA CLÉJAN: Cléjan is a ceramic artist, a ceremonialist and a shamanic energy practitioner based in East Hampton, New York. Clay has been a healing force in Anna’s life since she began exploring the medium in college. Her current work merges the creation of art with the healing process through the connection to the earth. In her process the ceramic pieces evolve organically as they inform her who they are. Her work embodies the sacred feminine and masculine, the moon and the sun, connection, wholeness and ancestral wisdom. They are graceful and powerful at the same time, inviting the viewer to reach out and touch. Cléjan is motivated by the intention of helping people remember who they are through their relationship to the earth and the cosmos.
BEATA PANKIEWICZ: Pankiewicz’s work is influenced by surrealism, abstraction and the natural world. She deftly juxtaposes diverse materials from commercial products to raw materials. The artist completed an artist residency at Marie Walsh Studio Space in New York influenced her artwork greatly. Pencil, pastel and charcoal drawings on large scale wood veneer were replaced with acrylic and pencil on wood covered with layers of venetian plaster used in interiors she’s styled.
About The Curator
Art advisor and curator, Heidi Lee-Komaromi has 20 years of professional experience specializing in Post-War and Contemporary art. In 2001, she founded HLK Art Group managing and curating various art collections and placing works by emerging and blue chip artists such as Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin, and George Condo. Her art career began at VIART, the first corporate art advisory in the industry, and she has worked her way up as Director at art galleries and art platforms including Director at artnet. She is a USPS qualified art appraiser, holds a Masters Degree in Modern Art and Art History and was awarded a curatorial grant from Affirmation Arts for Street Smart featuring artists like Keith Haring and KAWS. She currently lives in Sag Harbor with her husband and son.
About Kathryn Markel Fine Arts
Established in 1975 with the belief that significant contemporary art can be beautiful as well as visually and intellectually rigorous, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is committed to the experience of discovery and collecting at the highest level. Committed to serving a deep network of collectors and institutions, the gallery showcases a diverse array of primary market artists, unified by excellence in their craft, compelling intellectual framework, and a love of the art-making process.
