The Brooklyn Rail

Downbeat is a show curated by Guillermo Rodriguez, involving the work of artists who have spent time in residency at Denniston Hill, a 220-acre arts center located in the southern Catskills upstate in New York. This very good group show at the gallery’s main space on 57th Street, includes a bit of everything: drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos, small installations. The diversity of the show, which includes eleven artists, doesn’t reflect visual unity so much as it displays a broad variety of efforts, some of which are traditional, and others more conceptually driven. Active since 2004, Denniston Hill stands out as a leading residency active in a rural setting. “Downbeat” is devoted, then, to a partial view of work made in this unusual environment; the exhibition’s broad vision shows us what has been recently imagined, best described as various rather than unified. While it is impossible to cover all the works in the show, selecting some of the works will allow us to focus on the current imagination, its penchant for eclectic forms.

Renee Gladman’s group of musically inspired works on paper, called Slowly We Have the Feeling: Scores (2019-22) conflates words and modernist design in painting. The “scores” referred to are understood as patterns partially organic, partially geometric in nature. Set in rows on one wall, the images function both individually and as a group. They appear to be quite strongly influenced by modernism, given their entirely abstract orientation. The non-figurative elements can range from slightly awkward, white linear marks to more massed imagery, but still within a fairly small pictorial space. Colors brighten against the black ground. In another body of works on paper, Emma McNally is presenting seven graphite drawings, all made in 2022. They tend toward fog-like emanations on a tan background, with nests of lines billowing toward the sides of the page. They also might be seen as a downward-facing view of hilly landscape. “Sisters” is a good term to describe the sequence; related in markings and energy, the visual pieces are stylistically close enough to stand as a related body of work. McNally makes good use of our extended history of organic abstraction, here presented to the with skill.

Sojourner Truth Parsons’s January River (2022–23) is a strikingly attractive acrylic painting, developed mostly by stripes of mauve, blue, and orange on a black ground. It almost looks like one composition is resting against another; the thickish, linear elements predominate, while the muted hues defining the shapes seem to be illuminated from behind. This is more an abstraction than a study of nature. But it could be, in its parallel strips, a suggestion of flowing waters. Maia Cruz Palileo’s multi-toned portrait of a man with an unclothed torso is called La Guia (2023). Looking a lot like James Dean, the figure displays a torso rendered in tan and brown. The background is mostly orange, while the man seems to be standing in a pool, described with bits of blue. It is a striking portrait, keeping the belief alive that figuration can maintain its force even now.

Carlos Reyes’s collection of tabletop-size glass and glass-and-copper sculptures are abstract–with figurative suggestions. Each work is called Night Club, followed by a number in the sequence. The first one looks like a round head, with a circular opening at the bottom so that the form would remain solid, and also where the neck would be. But perhaps this description is too figurative; the other works in this series cannot be easily read as describing something seen. Even so, the fifth work is made of a kind and copper; it looks like a bottle with an indentation, surrounded by copper. These works merge abstract and figurative properties. Notes to the show describe the “downbeat” as an extended time for rest relaxation, and rejuvenation. Perhaps this notion can be challenged; it seems a bit distant from the show’s works, which usually communicate energy and force–not a creativity at leisure. It is the central notion of time spent at Denniston Hill, This show, which includes a lot of very good work, trades on that idea with success.