“Spaces of Uncertainty” features the work of painter Valeri Larko and photographer Linda Kuehne. Presenting landscapes of graffiti-covered buildings, vacant lots and shuttered storefronts, the artists expose the unexpected pathos and poetic beauty of these marginal and mostly forgotten areas. To the passerby these sites might appear desolate and abandoned. However, by forcing us to look more closely, the artists expose fleeting histories and hidden narratives, revealing spaces that are in fact brimming with life and potential.
Photographer Linda Kuehne uncovers striking compositions and hints of the sublime in even the most mundane of subject matters. She focuses her lens on the suburbs, capturing the deteriorating commercial sprawl and disused retail structures of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. She photographs empty convenience stores, abandoned fast food restaurants and vacant storefronts documenting the banal homogeneity of our nation’s commercial architecture, whether in the Northeast where she now lives, or out West where she regularly spends time.
Valeri Larko’s richly detailed oil paintings portray the decaying infrastructure, derelict industrial waterways, and neglected neighborhoods of New York City’s urban fringe. She captures these areas in transition as they become recolonized by nature, graffiti, or individuals with no other place to go. Larko paints en plein air in all seasons, revisiting her site for weeks or months at a time until her painting is done. She says, “The process of painting on location over a long period of time is crucial to my working method because it allows me to form a deeper connection to a particular place through careful observation and personal interaction with the people I meet there.”
“Spaces of Uncertainty” has been curated by Isabelle Schiavi. The exhibition is on view through April 30 at The Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, New York.
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