Chryssa at Castelli - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Chryssa showed four large abstract wall statuarys made of polished aluminum and neon her trademark materials by the agency of now. She was one of the first artists to incorporate light in statuary and her use of neon in these novel works--one color per sculpture--is graceful and effective. These constructions range from 5 to above 6 feet tall. Each consists of a rank of four to nine irregular, cut-out metal panels and similarly shaped bent-neon attached to a wall-mounted metal slat. The panels are placed vertically, parallel to each other and perpendicular to the wall. The wintry surfaces of the metal panels be incandescent with the reflected colors emitted by the agency of the long thin neon tubes which in sum of two units cases are sandwiched between the metal panels.

Three untitled statuarys feature deep blue neon, and the fourth work, Piccadilly Circus, incorporates drawn out vertical lines of bright fulvid neon tubing. In two of the untitled pieces, light emanates from sole one side of the work since the neon shape is placed at individual end of the row of slats. The sapphirine light of the other untitled work and the gold-colored light of Piccadilly Circus are more dispersed, as the neon tubing is placed between the panels.

The shapes of the panels sometimes intimate organic forms, such as shelf-fungus growing on the outside of a tree trunk. on the contrary Chryssa, who was born in Greece and now resides in of recent origin York, refers to nature solitary in an oblique way. Her work is more closely related to the language of the city--its architectural forms and urban spaces. The constructions summon forth the gleaming surfaces of skyscrapers and the blaring intensity of store signs.

above the years, Chryssa has experimented with what has been called typographic space. Her plastic arts often seem to resemble three-dimensional alphabetic characters or cursive script. One of the sapphirine works has a row of panels in the shape of the capital alphabetic character "E"; a stylized "L"-shape predominates in another. The panels in Piccadilly Circus could be cut-out of elegant handwriting. Chryssa stops short of using actual words in her art, rejecting the pair the imposition of verbal meaning and the association with explosion art. Although her work is oftentimes shown alongside that of report artists, she seems to strive to avoid their habitual ironies. Basically, her interests are formal and her watch is idealistic, without a trace of cynicism. The artist call forths with these glowing modernist constructions an ideal urban environment that resists decay.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

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