McKenzie Fine Art: Barbara Takenaga Exhibition 2007

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467 fax 212 989 5642


	Barbara Takenaga November 15 - December 21, 2007

	Using a simple vocabulary of radial symmetry, dots, and lines, Barbara Takenaga makes dense, highly patterned abstract paintings that create a sense of being pulled toward a far-off center. Through her obsessive use of repeated orbs and circles, as well as metallic paints whose colors shift in the light, the paintings are imbued with a distinct sensation of optical buzz. Her compositions are simultaneously simple in their organization and replete with references to both earthly and celestial worlds: butterfly patterns, fractals, and microscopic cross-sections, as well as star cluster formations and interstellar dust clouds. Takenaga's current works were influenced by a small Fra Angelico painting of an angel at the Metropolitan Museum. In her new Angel series, Takenaga has reversed the process of the paintings, by working from the corners to the center, as opposed to the center outward. This results in a more organic, less symmetrical image, as well as an implication of folded space as her forms move away toward the distance. In addition, the color palette has changed from deep reds and saturated aquas to an icier, arctic palette of crystalline blues, metallic golds and greens.