Robilant+Voena is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Brooklyn-based artist Nancy Blum, entitled The Black Drawings. The exhibition brings together a selection of new works on paper that celebrate the non-hierarchical joy of making and of looking.
The Black Drawings emerged as a decisive move by the artist to push the limits of her practice, to create something which was not dependent on external stimuli, rather coming from within. Within the simple parameter of a standard sheet of rectangular black paper, each piece begins with an instinctive mark by the artist, who then follows and builds further connected marks, resulting in organic forms that seem to dictate their own creation. This process of drawing in a spontaneous and imaginative way was a profound moment for the artist, explaining that ‘it returned me to the early satisfaction of generating patterns as a child, an enlivening and formative process.’
Visually, the Black Drawings consist of sumptuous lines, patterns, and seemingly organic or biomorphic forms that evade a sense of scale, while also questioning the relationship between matter and void, foreground and background. While drawings might resemble widely contrasting entities – some marine creatures, others prisms or cosmic phenomena – each piece starts with the same innate act of creation. These mesmeric designs, executed in coloured pencil and graphite, co-exist and tussle within the confines of the rectangular paper sheet, a playful space that offers both boundaries and possibilities.
The exhibition conveys the artist’s meditative approach to making and to looking, rooted in a profound love of craft that slows the mind and the body, demanding attention from both maker and viewer. This sense of ritual underpins much of her wider practice, which she describes as ‘demanding repetition of the body and perpetual renewal in the realm of the imagination’.
For the artist, drawing is both a means and an end, an investigation and an offering. The slow, repetitive act of mark-making creates a visual embodiment of time that seeks to counteract the pace of modern society which allows no time for stillness. The quiet, creative gesture of her medium parallels the mending of our communities: as Blum puts it, ‘patient, cumulative, and never complete’.
For Robilant+Voena’s winter exhibition, Nancy Blum’s drawings offer a moment of calm and creative optimism amidst the rush and demands of the holiday season.
Contact us for available works.
