GALLERI URBANE

Gallery 1:

Solo Show, ‘Poiesis’
DOnald Martiny

January 11, 2025 – February 15th, 2025

Galleri Urbane is pleased to present Poiesis, a solo exhibition of new work by Donald Martiny. Poiesis, a term of Ancient Greek origin, refers to the process of creation or the bringing of something into existence. It can also refer to the transformative power of human imagination and innovation.

In this first show of 2025, Donald Martiny presents a sequence of paintings informed by particular works of art history that have personally inspired and moved him—specifically Titian’s seminal “Poesie” series. The cycle of six, grand scale paintings, were commissioned by King Philip II of Spain in the mid-1500s, the era of Titian’s most eloquent expression.

Martiny’s affection and affinity with Titian is rooted in the master’s unique ability to capture dynamic movement in his works through his use of loose brushstrokes and expressive application of paint, notably using his bare fingers to apply and blend his paint. “I prefer to paint with my hands because I want the works to embody and exude the quality of being human, of the human directly in the work,” says Martiny.

An additional formal component found in Titian’s Poesie narratives, the banderole, is used as contemporary consideration by Martiny, the echoed forms in stasis, emerging on the studio floor under his paint laden hands. Martiny’s shaped substrates recall the banderole object’s frozen-in-action coiled energy. “I value the idea that the works are highly personal mark-making, such as handprints on the wall of a cave, tracks in the snow, or warm breath tracing in cold air,”says Martiny.

Artists have been exploring beyond the rectangle in the making of shaped paintings throughout the history of art, ranging from Cimabue to Frank Stella. Most typically in this endeavor, artists have built a substrate structure first and then responded by painting it. Martiny flipped the model: “I went a different way. I wanted the act of painting itself to determine the form of the paintings. After much experimentation, I began to paint freely on generous expanses of aluminum. I initially experimented with application tools, then was drawn closer, ultimately painting with my hands. Then I simply cut away the negative areas,” says Martiny. “The form follows the painting, rather than the painting following the form.”

Gallery 2:

Solo Show, ‘Other Possible Worlds’
Arden Bendler Browning

January 11, 2025 – February 15th, 2025

Galleri Urbane is pleased to announce ‘Other Possible Worlds’, an upcoming exhibition by Arden Bendler Browning. This exhibition marks Browning’s fourth exhibition with the gallery. Bendler’s trademark circular form is present within this series, continuing the abstracted landscapes made from live sketches, photographs, and meditation. Other Possible Worlds explores the physical, and metaphysical, aspects of landscape – engaged in the enveloping, cyclical experience of her paintings.

Browning constructs the landscapes while on road trips in the U.S and abroad, painting in the passenger seat catching glimpses of what she sees. The artist then abstracts them into portal-like environments that explore the formal and memorial qualities of each location. In a philosophical sense, ‘possible worlds’ explore the bounds of logical statements we can delve into; given this context, “Other Possible Worlds describes metaphysical worlds that could have existed given certain shifts in reality: what might have been versus what is,” says Browning.

The paintings, both in the process and in their final states, become worlds accessible to travel – both imagined and real for the viewer and Browning. “These paintings pull us in close to peer into the portal like drawings, and simultaneously push us back to appreciate the distinctive qualities of each complete circle, and the connections and relationships that exist between them,” says Browning.

Each drawing serves as the initial base for the paintings, framed as a rectangle within the rounded paintings; the contrast in shape and style of the drawing and paintings create two experiences within each work. Sweeping brush strokes of vibrant colors emanate from the drawings, responding to the formal qualities of each initial drawing. Abstraction and representation collide – experience and memory coalesce.

For Browning, these drawings don’t serve as representations of the landscapes, but rather “like taking notes on a lived experience,’ says Browning. “I am also curious about the elusiveness of memory, as recorded moments dissipate and eventually morph into different versions of the reality that might have once been.”

From lived experience, to memory, and into recorded history, these worlds manifest as portals into the mind and life of landscape and those that travel through, allowing us to peer through Other Possible Worlds.

Galleri Urbane in Dallas
2277 Monitor St
Dallas, Tx  75206
432 386 0590
galleriurbane.com