Works by Gudrun Mertes-Frady
Gudrun Mertes-Frady is a New York-based abstract artist whose work blends geometric structure with intuitive, painterly explorations of color and line.
Education
Mertes-Frady was born in Cologne, Germany. She studied painting and art history at the Cologne Academy of Fine and Applied Arts.
She has lived and worked in New York City since 1981.
Technique
Mertes-Frady shifts her practice between painting and drawing. Her processes for the two are quite different.
Her drawings manifest quickly and intuitively as she applies multiple layers of Conte crayon, graphite, charcoal and metallic crayon to hand-made sheets of Japanese paper, such as Kozo (made from mulberry trees) or Gampi (made from the gampi bush).
Her work on mylar evolve over a longer period of time. Using a mixture of ink and water based media, she creates layered, expressionistic, abstract compositions, often using both the front and back of the semi-translucent surface in order to add dimensionality and depth.
Her paintings are all oil on canvas, linen and sometime wood panel. She frequently includes pigments of aluminum and graphite. This metallic media becomes activated by ambient light, creating a kinetic effect when the work is viewed from different angles. (All the white appearing lines in some of her paintings are actually metallic oil paint and change from soft grey to a luminous silver.)
Inspiration
Raised in a family of architects, Mertes-Frady learned early on to appreciate the visual language of the grid.
Her background led her to appreciate the structure of paintings by Constructivist artists like Malevich and Bauhaus artists like Mondrian. Throughout her career she has experimented with many different mediums and techniques, but has always relied on the geometry of the grid for stability. Even her more lyrical, “all-over” drawings are underpinned by an architectonic arrangement of space.
Despite their structured appearance, however, Mertes-Frady never plans her compositions in advance. She is inspired by instinct and intuition. By freeing herself to react in the moment to arbitrary choices about color, texture, and line, unexpected and beautiful contrasts are allowed to develop between the architectonic structure of the work and its painterly spirit.
Relevant Quotes
In an essay about the work of Mertes-Frady, acclaimed art journalist Lilly Wei writes, “Her work continues to radiate a light.....an illumination that is almost seasonal, from reticence of a pale wintry day to the glow of spring, the glare of summer to more sombre casts, the sensation shifting from a crystalline delicacy to a slow sonorous rumble....There is also what lies beneath, which comes up like pentimenti: history, genealogy, archaeology, traces that are both process and poetics.”
Exhibitions
Mertes-Frady has had more than 20 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe.
Collections
Her work is in many public, private, and corporate collections, including that of Rockefeller University, Universal Music, The Busch Reisinger Museum, Gwynneth Paltrow, the American Embassy in Dubai, and many others.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2016
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Bridgehampton, NY
2015
Cynthia Reeves, MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
2014
Michael Trierweiler Contemporary Art, Weimar, Germany
2013
Mark Wolf Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
2010
Piquion+Trierweiler, Weimar, Germany
2010
ART Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
2009
Maud Piquion, Berlin, Germany
2009
Cynthia-Reeves, New York, NY
2007
Reeves-Contemporary, New York, NY
2007
Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH
2005
Reeves-Contemporary, New York, NY
2003
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
2002
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
2000
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
1999
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
1997
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
1995
Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
1994
Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY
1992
Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY
1991
Galerie Lommel, Cologne-Leverkusen, Germany
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
“Metalpoint and Graphite” Cynthia Reeves, Walpole, NH
2015
"August Geometry”, Maria Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2015
Art in Embassies, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
2015
Sideshow Nation III, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn
2015
Paperazzi, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Paper Show, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Sideshow Nation II, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Sideshow Nation, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2012
“Paper Bands”, Jason MCCoy Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2012
“Mic : Check”, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2011
Mark Wolf Contemporary, San Francisco, CA
2011
“Divergent Affinities”, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, curated by Barbara Harberger
2008
Nuture Art Benefit, curated by Lilly Wei, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
2008
“Small Works Show”, 80 Washington Square Galleries, New York, NY
2007
Reeves-Contemporary, New York, NY
2005
Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH
2003
“A Common Thread”, Hennepin County Government Center, Saint Paul, MN
2002
“Here is New York”, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC
“Here is New York”, Les Recontres d’Arles, Arles, France
“Here is New York”, Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
“Here is New York”, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“Here is new York”, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
“Here is New York”, University of California, Berkley, CA
2001
“Synopsis”, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
2001
“Art 2001”, e1 Gallery, London, England
2000
“Sun Signs”, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
2000
“(Un)Resolved”, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York, NY
1996
Art Initiative Gallery, New York, NY Group exhibition, curated by Stephen Rosenberg
1994
“Summer Solstice”, Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY curated by Fran Kaufman
1993
"Cadavre Exquis", The Drawing Center, New York, NY
1993
"The Tenth Summer", Stephen Rosenberg Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Charles A, Riley II, Hamptons Art Hub, August 31
2015
Jerry Cullum, Arts Atlanta, Atlanra, GA, August 26
2011
Edith Newhall, Phil adelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, January 17
2009
Martin Stolzenberg, TLZ, Weimar, Germany, December 9
2009
Andrea Hilgenstock, Die Welt, Berlin, Germany, November 17
2009
Jens Hindrichsen, Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany, November 3
2007
Constance Wyndham, Artnews, May
2007
Mario Naves, Catalogue Essay, Reeves-Contemporary
2007
Joseph Wallentini, Review, Abstract Art On Line, April
2004
Edward Leffingwell, Art in America, May
2003
Ann Landi, ARTnews, December
2003
Mario Naves, New York Observer, October 1
2002
Lilly Wei, Catalog Essay, Rosenberg+Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
2000
Ken Johnson, The New York Times, November 3
2000
Joseph Wallentini, Review, Abstract Art on Line, November
1999
Joseph Wallentini, Artist Profile, Abstract Art on Line, June
1999
Jeannie Wilkinson, Catalogue Essay, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
1999
Joseph Wallentini, Artist Profile, Abstract Art on Line, June
1997
Lissa McClure, Review Magazine
1997
Arlene Raven, Catalog Essay, Rosenberg+Kaufman Fine Art, NYC