Endlessly experimental and now in her eighth decade, Barbara Kasten is showing three recent bodies of work at Bortolami Gallery New York: an extension of her colorful, large scale photographs, Collisions, and new sculptural, photographic hybrids entitled Progressions. She will also present Parallels — her first freestanding sculpture since the early 1970s.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE “Parti Pris”, Barbara Kasten, through 21 October 2017, Bortolami Gallery, New York bortolamigallery.com

In architectural terminology, the parti pris is the chief organizing principle of a project. Kasten utilizes the structural principles of architecture and process in her new works, which can be read within the realm of architectural diagrams.

Kasten’s inventive Progressions,  composed of face – mounted photographs with geometric acrylic shapes affixed to the surface, emphasize the duality of the photograph and of the relief’s sculptural forms.

Transitioning from photographic representation as in the Collisions to address spatial ambiguities, Kasten incorporates concrete materiality while maintaining each element’s mysterious and elusive qualities.

The image in the photograph depicts space and even recedes into the depths of implied space, while the three-dimensional components extend outward. Both features—the image and the acrylic fragments—act as a bridge between dimensions.

As photographic hybrids, the Progressions are abstract objects, and the relationship between the two components ceaselessly oscillates back and forth.

With both elements of sculpture and photography, the new works become something else entirely, depending on and informing one another. The shapes and shadows that they cast are crucial; creating what Kasten deems a “temporary photogram.” These new works conceptually relate to her AMALGAMS of the late 1970s; gelatin silver prints that fused photogram, photograph, and drawing.

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