Sheila Ghidini: A FLEETING GRACE
February 5 - March 24, 2016
Sheila Ghidini, Grace 1, 2015, graphite and mica dust on paper, 28 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
For the contemplative works in A Fleeting Grace, Sheila Ghidini has pared down her interest in drawing to emphasize the basics of line, value and gradation. The simplicity of her geometric compositions recalls the reductive work of the late minimalist Agnes Martin. In addition to new drawings made with graphite and mica dust, the exhibition will include a freestanding sculpture that explores concepts of ascending and descending.
Alternating directions such as up, down, rise, and fall, are recurring themes in Ghidini’s work. One series of drawings in the exhibition includes cloud and sky imagery to suggest the movement of air and macro scale of atmosphere. Here and There, a large, wood sculpture, is a creative combination of a chair and ladder, referencing a physical upward/downward movement.
Also in the exhibition, Ghidini’s most recent drawings are from a series titled Grace, wherein disparate shapes symbolize opposing elements harmoniously coexisting within a minimal composition. Earlier this year when Ghidini was working on this series, the tragic shooting of nine churchgoers occurred in Charleston, South Carolina. During court proceedings, several relatives of the victims offered their forgiveness to the gunman in an uncommon display of an elevated consciousness. Though abstract, Ghidini’s drawings explore the concept of people and things rising to a higher plane for a more peaceful coexistence. The drawings evoke introspective questions such as, what does it mean to bestow grace, how does one achieve this state, and can grace be anything but fleeting?
Sheila Ghidini earned her MFA in Sculpture from the University of California, Berkeley and her BFA from Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford, Connecticut. She is a recipient of several grants including those from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Rockefeller Foundation. A Fleeting Grace is the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.
