Massey Klein Gallery is pleased to announce, Optic Wave, a two-person exhibition of new work by MaDora Frey and Caleb Nussear. The exhibition will be on view from April 5th through May 12th with an artists’ reception on Friday, April 5th, from 6-8pm.

Optic Wave focuses on the sculptural and rhythmic nature of both artists’ works; works that utilize light as both the subject and medium. The exhibition asks the viewer to physically participate in viewing each piece. Circumnavigating each work allows the optics of one’s perspective to change, challenge and even complete the work. As viewers interact with the aura surrounding each piece, perception, angle, and overall viewpoint of the works shift in tone and chroma. These movements become diffractions, manipulating not only light but also color, texture, and shadow.

This kaleidoscopic quality of the works is further emphasized through the use of pattern and repetition. A geometric fold becomes a ripple, ripples become a wave, waves become a meditative sea. The patterns are a visual mantra, leaving the viewer with a sense of wonderment and even transcendence through optical play.

MaDora Frey’s sculptural paintings describe the territory that exists between waking thought and the physical world. Frey juxtaposes contrasting elements as a metaphor for the dynamic between the tangible and ethereal. Materials with a strong physical presence, such as wood and paint, are paired with those that possess spiritual or even mystical associations, such as mirrors and light. Whether one interprets the work as object, portal, painting, or perhaps “artifact” from the future, the effect is one of visual complexity and wonderment. In coupling real with illusory space, the work evokes the uncanny sense of inhabiting two places at once, without being fully present in either. Frey lives and works in Atlanta, GA. This is her first exhibition with the gallery.

Caleb Nussear is an American artist living in New York City. His work in drawing, sculpture, installation, and performance is influenced by his early education in mathematics, philosophy, and religion. Additional influences are the natural landscape as it is found, the sensuous and tensile process of the drawn line, and recursive geometric surfaces. A frequent collaborator with dancers and dance choreographers, recent work investigates using recursive geometric sculpture within contemporary dance. He exhibits regularly in New York City and the surrounding environs; including: Massey Klein Gallery; Judson Memorial Church; Triskelion Arts; Art Lot; Lesley Heller Workspace; Danese/Corey Gallery; the Katonah Museum of Art; No Longer Empty; NURTUREArt; Marymount Manhattan College; and Vaudeville Park. This is the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery.