Massey Klein Gallery is pleased to announce, Line item, a group exhibition of new work by Kevin Francis, Matthew Larson, and Allison Reimus. The exhibition will be on view from December 6th through January 25th, 2020. Please join the gallery for an opening reception on Friday, December 13th, from 6-8pm.

How does one create a mark that is powerful, unique, and deeply personal? Through examination of each artist’s work, the exhibition explores the use of line as tool. Yarn, string, or text act as the starting point. Through each artist's distinct practice, this element becomes something more: repetition and overlay build or obscure the once clear linear element. These works serve as an investigation into material, process, and identity.

Kevin Francis’s work incorporates found and constructed materials, often paper, that become the substrate for his specific mark-making process of using line. The artist snaps a paint-soaked cord, hitting the paper and leaving a single mark, which is then repeated hundreds of times. Francis forms broad patterns over textured, reflective, and undulating surfaces that are then sewn together. These marks create a lens to contemplate and explore the interplay between line and abstraction. The overlaying line, linear composition, pattern making, and abstraction play on the reflexive instincts of the viewer to read, as well as view, the paintings.

Matthew Larson’s practice, a highly unique variation on weaving, uses mass-produced and commonly available materials such as acrylic and wool fiber, and velcro. Following a labor-intensive process developed by the artist, Larson embeds individual strands of fiber into velcro mounted on linen, which he then stretches over a panel. Through controlled use of line, he achieves precise patterns and striations of color and texture.

Allison Reimus's work explores the relationship between decoration and function and similarly, how painting operates as both an object and an idea. Simple compositions depicting singular moments, text, and objects allow Reimus to freely explore her interests in formalism, geometry, line, and abstraction. Thoughtful investigations regarding tactility and surface often lead to experiments with media closely associated with domesticity and the feminine: glitter, gold leaf, flocking fibers, textiles, and spray paint.