Hackett Mill is pleased to present NYSS: West Coast Connections, the first showcase to celebrate the West Coast alumni of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. The show was selected by New York-based critic and curator Karen Wilkin and features the work of 18 contemporary artists.
“In reviewing the submissions, I was immediately struck by the individuality and diversity of the works I was presented with – not surprising, given the range of different backgrounds and experiences among their authors. What was also apparent is that whether they were working figuratively or abstractly, from perception or inventing, whether in two or three dimensions, no matter what the medium, everyone seemed to be intensely serious...Everyone seemed to be seeking to elicit the maximum amount of expressiveness from their chosen medium and to exploit its special characteristics. In short, all of the alumni seemed to be striving to make the best work they were capable of – what the school’s dean, Graham Nickson, calls “ambition for the work.’” - Karen Wilkin.
This is Hackett Mill’s second collaboration with the New York Studio School. In 2016 we were invited as guest curators to present a show focusing on Bay Area Figuration. That show, As I Am: Painting the Figure in Post-War San Francisco, included the work of David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Paul Wonner, Manuel Neri and others.
