space /time # 36 / Acrylic and ink on canvas / 72" x 48" / Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist and Stux Gallery, NY
ANNA JÓELSDÓTTIR
If you had one of those family - tree genealogies of modern art ( made famous by Alfred Barr and Ad Reinhard) Jóelsdóttir’s work would stem from two different branches: the cerebral, linear abstraction of painters like Barnett Newman and Kenneth Noland and the angsty, squiggly expressionism of artists like Egon Schiele. Angular, tricolored stripes, like racing colors or road dividers, end in tangled, scribbled, frenetic bursts, like a lightning bolt emitting charge. The white grounds of the paintings serve as perfect stages for each round in what seems a more lasting epic bout..