Projects Gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition by Vivian Wolovitz – “Second Nature”.  Ms. Wolovitz will present a grouping of recently completed large and small-scale abstract paintings.

                  “Second Nature” brings us into intimate contact with Vivian’s remarkable personal vision.  The rich impastoed surfaces, repeatedly worked and rebuilt, immediately reveal the artist’s deep commitment to both painting and her connection to the landscape. As her brush crosses the surface creating pentimenti upon pentimenti and color field on color field, one is confronted by a rich sense of a “land space” fully felt and understood. As coined by Philadelphia art critic Edward Sozanski, this is “slow art.”  When one looks upon the surface, they are drawn immediately to the color.  Slowly, upon continued observation, the subsurface is revealed.  A scraping here, a scratching there and throughout layers revealed in an almost hypnotic mantra.

                  Vivian leaves us few clues as to the initial impulse for each painting; yet, the presence of the landscape is complete and total.  As one stands in the weathered and well-worn barn that is her studio, there are two things that captivate the visitor.   The first, of course, are the paintings.  The other is the enormous presence of the windows to the landscape just beyond the wall.  These paintings have this light, this air, this authority.  However, they also have something else - a sense of the purity of art.  Art made from experience free from superficial reference.  Art that is itself nature and just as complete. 

                  These are not the works of someone new to the task.  They reflect the master’s hand in every way.  They are confident and bold, hard fought yet fresh.  One loses oneself in the fluid juice of oil paint stayed just long enough to lock onto a fleeting sense of a moment now frozen in the viscous brew.  In this show we see paintings of profound commitment and deep feeling.  As one moves through the exhibition, each canvas is a first-time experience, leading the viewer through the artist’s eyes and senses.  The vivid freshness of this work and the unmistakable feeling of the artist’s deep involvement in their making leads a viewer to believe that they are being made before their very eyes.  It is exactly this that makes them art, expression realized in tranquility.  The strong earthly connection, together with the nervous tangibility of their making, comes together to create a full and memorable experience in paint.