Inside/Outside opens at Kehler Liddell Sunday

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Inside/Outside: Artwork by Lisa Hess Hesselgrave & Scott Paterson
Dec. 4, 2008—Jan. 11, 2009
Opening Reception: Sun., Dec. 7, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

Lisa Hess Hesselgrave brings a new body of work to Kehler Liddell, exploring a variety of media on paper alongside her better-known work in painting. Her long history with oils and portraiture gives way to works done in pastel, pencil and collage. The medium changes allow her to "reaffirm and continue my love of color, line, gesture, and luminosity" and to renegotiate the boundaries of her craft. Hesselgrave often addresses the human figure or landscape with intentional focus on color and light. Yet the recognizable subjects also have a strong sense of interior emotion. Sometimes it is an interplay of figures on the canvas. Other times, it is a subtle interchange between viewer and artist.

Scott Paterson's work clearly shows his interest in architecture. His fascination with painting houses began as a student in San Francisco, perusing newsprint real estate mailers. He turned the black and white images into color, focusing on the architecture of composition rather then the homes.

"I would look for some kind of drama in the structure of dark and lights...between organic and artificial." For much of the past 30 years, Paterson veered toward abstract painting, returning only in 2007 to the house-related images.

"This time they are my own images, found along the Connecticut shoreline, in northern California, and near Sarasota, Florida. Collectively, they may resemble a real estate catalog in which some of the properties could soon be going into foreclosure."

Whether the view is ostensibly inside or outside, Paterson's and Hesselgrave's work offers a timeless sense of the physical world. Here is a shared reverence, made visible in the artists' ability to translate and document what surrounds them as beautiful, humble, and often mysterious.