White Room: Rachel Urkowitz

Rachel Urkowitz also works in abstracted landscape. In her White Room, she presents a series of collages that explore gardens as sites of psychological projection and idealized nature. The forms are based on real and imagined landscapes, derived from studying famous gardens as well as Japanese landscape prints. The collages are made from Color-Aid, sheets of different hued paper used by art students in the study of color theory. Defying traditional composition, these pieces have no horizon, centers are carved out, and their shapes are abstracted through the manipulation of edges and collaged layers. Urkowitz received her MFA in painting from Hunter College, and has also studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, Brown University and the Slade School of Art in London. A New York based artist, she has participated in residency programs at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Artists at Giverny Program, France. This will be her first solo exhibition in New York.