Bloomstone Newgrange IX. Michael Barringer, artist
By Emma Castleberry
Momentum Gallery will open a new exhibit this month featuring the works of Michael Barringer, Jeannine Marchand and Michael Enn Sirvet. The show opens with a reception on Sunday, May 6, from 5–8 p.m., and runs through June 23. While the artists’ mediums are quite different—Barringer is an abstract painter, Marchand creates ceramic sculptures and Sirvet crafts his work from metal, stone and wood—their pieces generate a number of common themes for the show. “All three artists take an intellectual approach to their work, thoughtfully citing a host of inspirations ranging from literature to art history to personal experiences,” says Jordan Ahlers, director of Momentum Gallery. “Each has reached a point in their career where they have a fully realized aesthetic. Recurring forms and techniques honed over time afford immediate recognition of their work.”
Though Sirvet’s sculptures can be seen in major collections throughout the world, this will be his Asheville debut. The artist brings the exacting detail of a former career in sculptural engineering to his work. “All three artists have developed a unique and pure visual vocabulary which they use to explore archetypal ideas and physical realities,” Sirvet says. “As for me, I do that through a vocabulary of positive and negative space, light and shadow and simple shapes and forms employed with obsessive repetition and attention to precise craftsmanship.”
Marchand will be exhibiting a recent body of work called Folds, in which she layers and drapes unglazed white clay, giving it the appearance of fabric. Barringer’s paintings combine gestural marks and organic forms in an array of different materials: gesso, charcoal, pastel, acrylic paints and waxy oil pigment, providing the full story line of how each painting came to be. “I believe this installation will provide a thorough engagement with space,” says Barringer, “from my flat, almost fresco-like paintings to Marchand’s three dimensional wall hangings to Sirvet’s free-standing forms.”
Momentum Gallery is located at 24 North Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville. For more information, visit momentumgallery.com.
