there is a road

Omi International Arts Center is pleased to present there is a road, a new body of work by Nicole Cherubini, curated by Nicole Hayes. The exhibition frames Cherubini's exploration of sculptural properties and processes, while destabilizing expectations of structural intention. Cherubini utilizes and dismantles familiar applications of material; the fact of clay here is taken for granted in the presence of its mastery and willful misuse.

Cherubini drew inspiration for this exhibition from a recent visit to the Agnes Martin gallery at the Harwood Museum in Taos, NM. The octagonal gallery houses seven specific paintings by Agnes Martin. Central to the gallery are four Donald Judd benches, chosen by Martin, and an oculus which allows the brilliant, ever-changing light of the Southwestern sky to illuminate and cause shifts in the blue, white and graphite colored paintings. Akin to the Harwood's Martin Gallery, Omi's gallery with skylights and an expansive view onto The Fields Sculpture Park is especially responsive to light. Works exhibited in Omi's gallery are in constant conversation with the light and landscape countryside around then. Cherubini's new series was created in her Hudson, NY studio a short drive from Omi.

Cherubini is a sculptor, a studio artist. She is not a landscape painter or creator of earthworks but while she is manipulating wood, clay, paint in the studio the experience of hours of car rides through the countryside are with her. The knowledge of space and form and placement have been stored. The understanding of color and variation are recorded. And the imposing power of grandeur and minutia are deeply embedded.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.