Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to present Cross Cut, an exhibition of new work by Debbi Kenote and Mark Sengbusch. Cross Cut, which features both artists' explorations of the language of sculpture through painting. This marks Kenote’s first and Sengbusch’s second exhibition with the gallery.

Cross Cut is a nice metaphor for both of our interests in woodworking and our interaction with the 3D plane while painting. We intersect shapes horizontally, quite often through the act of tiling or joining, something quite unusual for painters. Cross Cut is also used in the sense of taking a journey or cutting through history. While working as contemporary painters in New York City, we both find similar landmarks in history to claim as influences (architecture, craft, as well as over a decade shared in NYC).

(Debbi Kenote & Mark Sengbusch)

In Cross Cut, both artists focus largely on color and geometry. They are deeply influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, with a focus on the storytelling potential of media such as textiles, ceramics, and woodworking. Their practices unite abstract forms with an individualized approach to color. Although both artists’ works exhibit naturalistic elements and observations, their newer paintings reveal their fascination with architecture and architectural elements such as tessellations in tiles and sidewalks.

Debbi Kenote’s shaped canvases are largely inspired by childhood recollections and her interest in American craft traditions. By hand making her own often complexly shaped stretchers—an assembly process she compares to that of completing a puzzle—she challenges the traditional rectangular painting canvas. Kenote’s research into quilts, weaving, and architecture provides inspiration for the canvas shapes she designs and builds. Once the canvases are dyed, washed, and dried, she stretches the canvas and begins applying acrylic. Much of the shapes and patterns in Kenote’s latest paintings are inspired by her research into Bauhaus weaving and the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, while her colors reference observed shades from nature, particularly fungi—a recent interest of hers.

Mark Sengbusch’s tiled works represent the artist’s return to painting after five years spent primarily concentrating on sculpture. The wood tiles in these works are painted and placed in specific patterns that reference ancient ceramic tiles and stonework. The colors in Blue Waves, for example, are inspired by 700-year-old Iranian tiles observed by the artist at the Abu Dhabi Louvre. Sengbusch describes the sensibility of his work as “Pop meets Folk.” Many of the colors and patterns in his work are influenced by “old faded vinyl record covers from the ‘70s, videogames, and neon fashion from the ‘90s, ceramic glazes and faded medieval tapestries, bright flowers and graffiti on box trucks in Bushwick.” Sengbusch will also be presenting new sculptures made of wood and aluminum in Cross Cut.

Debbi Kenote (b. 1991, Anacortes, WA) has exhibited at galleries internationally, including shows at Kate Werble and Marvin Gardens in New York, Duran|Mashaal Gallery in Montreal, Cob Gallery in London, and Fir Gallery in Beijing. She received her BFA in Painting from Western Washington University and her MFA in Sculpture from Brooklyn College. Her work has been on display at several art fairs, including Art Toronto, Art Plural, Future Fair, and Spring/Break Art Show.

Kenote has been published through Liquitex, Maake Magazine, Elle Magazine, Innovate Grant, Suboart, The Hopper Prize, Art of Choice, and Hyperallergic. Her work has been placed in several collections, including the OZ Art Collection and the Capital One Corporate Collection. She has been an artist in residence at the Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Saltonstall Foundation, Plop, Nes Artist Residency, and the Mineral School. In 2022 she was a finalist for the Innovate Grant and in 2021 she was shortlisted for the Hopper Prize. Kenote lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Mark Sengbusch’s (b. 1979, Ravenna, OH) recent shows include a group exhibition at The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, OR, and a solo exhibition at Marvin Gardens Annex in Ridgewood, NY. He received his MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2008. He has participated in residencies at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony and Vermont Studio Center. He has exhibited with Bushwick’s Transmitter Gallery, Ortega y Gasset Projects in Gowanus, Real Tinsel Gallery in Milwaukee, David Klein Gallery in Detroit, and Hilde in Los Angeles. This is the artist’s second presentation with Cristin Tierney Gallery. Sengbusch lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.