Eyes Like Caves
New work by Debbi Kenote
Curated by Maria Vogel
March 7 – April 5, 2019
Opening reception March 7, 7-9pm
The Canvas by Querencia Studio
Maria Vogel will present a never-before-seen body of work by artist Debbi Kenote. Nature, specifically the forested terrain of the Pacific Northwest where Kenote grew up, has always played a vital role in her life and artistic practice. As nature contains a duality – it is both a safe-haven and an area of vast unknown - so does Kenote’s work contain a mix of various emotions. As she continues to explore new domains in her work, she invites the full spectrum of emotion that a new experience brings with it.
Over the course of the past year, Kenote has been in an exploratory state, learning from her past work and fusing it with a new forward-thinking approach. Eyes like Caves is the pinnacle of this past year and the combination of all these transformative experiences.
Travel greatly informs Kenote’s practice. As she explores unknown territory, Kenote is always thinking about the newness of a place; she purposefully wanders, remaining open to whatever may come her way or be around the next corner. Kenote absorbs these new experiences as a whole, acknowledging both the excitement and instability they bring and translates them into her work. A direct parallel to conquering one’s fears becomes a vital take-off point in Kenote’s creation process.
Frustrated with the rigid angles of the canvas, Kenote recently decided to work against this restriction by cutting shapes into various medium. Through this motion, Kenote got resituated with the idea of shape – of what different shapes mean to different people, the emotions they evoke and their fixed notions. Apart from creating shapes out of the works themselves, Kenote explores shapes on the surface as well. She creates some forms intentionally, while others find their way into being organically. Kenote often explores the relationship of painting versus sculpture in her work, giving special attention to the possibilities that arise when you give proper attention to color and shape.
Kenote’s practice is personal, natural, and completely her own. She refuses to be boxed in and to work based on what she has been told to do. Similar to her childhood spent exploring the world through her neighboring woods, Kenote insists that play remains a part of her practice.
With Eyes Like Caves, Kenote stretches her abilities as an artist, working in her largest scale to date while still honoring medium sized works and small works on paper. The works on view embody the vast abilities of Kenote and her ongoing explorations into what it means to be an artist in this day and age.
Eyes Like Caves will be on view at The Canvas by Querencia Studio from March 7 – April 5.
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DEBBI KENOTE is a Brooklyn based artist and curator. She received her MFA from Brooklyn College in 2016 after moving from the West Coast. Since then her work has been exhibited in group shows at The James A. Farley Post Office, Lucus Lucus Gallery, Art Lot in Redhook, First Street Gallery, The Peekskill Project, Unibrow Art Auctions, Flat Rate Contemporary, and SPRING/BREAK Art Show. In August 2018 she completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont. In addition to curating pop up exhibitions out of her apartment gallery, Kenote also curated exhibitions at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in 2017 and 2018. She maintains a studio practice in Bushwick in Brooklyn.
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