Sabine Reckewell: Composites

January 11–March 15, 2018

Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to present Composites, a solo exhibition of installations by Bay Area artist Sabine Reckewell.

Sabine Reckewell has been creating conceptually dictated installations and wall drawings made of string, yarn, cord, webbing, and other linear materials for more than a decade. Her experimentation in this arena began over a period of several years in the early 1980’s. In 2011, she revisited some of these early works and began creating new linear installations. Since then she has continued working in two primary directions. For some installations, she uses only straight lines, often created with a single continuous length of material that is wrapped around precisely spaced nails in opposing walls, to create geometric planes, volumes in space, or flat wall drawings. In others, she strings the material loosely from one point to another, allowing gravity to create curved volumes or arched shapes.

In a shift that is radical within the artist’s process, Reckewell’s new installations incorporate a combination of straight and curvilinear lines. In addition, she has allowed the mixing of different materials and use of multiple colors within a single piece. In one work, thick curved lines of canary yellow nylon webbing overlap straight lines of narrow nylon cord in shades of gray and blue. Staying within a rectangular perimeter, the works reference drawings or paintings, and the gallery walls becomes the canvas.

Born in Germany and educated in a Bauhaus school, Reckewell identifies László Moholy-Nagy’s paintings and shadow boxes as inspirations, while her works resemble the Constructivist sculptures of Naum Gabo. Reckewell’s use of fiber-based materials to create large sculptural works and installations is an approach shared by contemporaries such as Los Angeles-based Pae White and French artist Sébastien Preschoux.

With a steadiness and depth of ongoing investigation within a fairly specific realm, Reckewell continues to lead us to new ground.