Chicago Art Source Gallery's fall show, Finding Space: A Solo Show of New Work by Ginny Sykes, continues through November 1, 2014. Ginny Sykes is a well known Chicago artist who has lived, worked and taught in the city for many years. A frequent gallery exhibitor, Ginny's work is also found many permanent collections. The multi-talented artist is also a teacher, performer and creative director.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Finding Space is a reflection on my need for physical and psychological spaciousness: in life, in perspective, and spiritually. Making room for the ebb and flow as opposed to ‘a pushing’ at life. This direction followed in part a prolonged illness during which I had to rethink how I could sustain my work. Space is a container, metaphysically and metaphorically. With spaciousness one can receive, rejuvenate, reflect, think. Without it there is panic, defense, a lack of time. Re-rooting my body and work within nature has helped me heal, and hints of nature began to show up my abstractions.

The work in Finding Space veers toward observation, collapsing the space between my lived and perceptual experience and the abstracted performance of my responses, yet it is an essence rather than depiction of nature I am after. I use abstraction to communicate symbolic content, fusing gestural layering with texture, transparency and light. I like what Fairfield Porter once wrote about deKooning’s abstractions, that they "release human significances that cannot be expressed verbally". I too am interested in releasing painting’s possibilities to create spaces that contain and are metaphors for the nature of subtlety, nuance, and mystery.

Additional information about Ginny Sykes and high res imagery of her work is immediately available.