Taking a cue from the Everyday Abstract – Abstract Everyday show currently on view at James Cohan Gallery in New York, this week, Your Daily Arts Break will focus on work by artists who transform utilitarian materials into abstract works of art. Exhibition curator Matthew Higgs says that “in the work of all these artists traces of our material culture are transformed, or perhaps more accurately, re-purposed into something that is simultaneously familiar and strange.” Higgs describes “everyday” abstraction as “artistic practices that actively privilege and operate in the grey area between an essentially non-representational image/object and the use of quotidian materials and processes.” What do you think about this type of abstract painting and sculpture? Does the use of familiar materials make it more or less accessible?
