Poetic Dialogue
76 Greene Str., 2nd fl., New York
Sep. 30 – Oct. 27, 2006





Jeffrey Filbert

Dima Karabchievsky
(www.karabchievsky.com)

Alex Katsenelinboigen
The show Poetic Dialogue features three
artists - two painters and a sculptor - united
in their search for a visually expressive
language. The narrow subject matter -
landscape and figure for the most part - is
interpreted by the artists in a highly personal
and innovative manner devoid of superficial
realism and sentimentality.
Dima Karabchievsky, both stylistically and in
subject matter, belongs to the expressionist
tradition. Karabchievsky’s “alla prima”
paintings convey the mood of a concrete
location, person, or event and reflect his
direct and emotional vision. Luscious
brushwork of pure paint (sometimes straight
from the tube) builds up space and is
supported by a scaffolding of strong linear
accents - vertical tree trunks, diagonal
rooftops, arching bridges, etc. The paintings
show a wide range of compositions and
color schemes ranging from rather flat
decorative ones (close-up of a flower patch
executed with reds and yellows) to the ones
with well articulated perspective and violent
spatial recession (view of Chinatown from
Williamsburg Bridge dominated by dark
violets and reds with contrasting touches of
pink and orange).
Alex Katsenelinboigen is closer to Matisse.
His paintings are a tapestry of semi-realistic
shapes arranged in a flattened semi-
realistic space. In some of the works the
objects seem to dissolve in the abstract
signs to which they give birth. The color is
delicate and  subdued. His handling of paint
is sensual with subtle gradations of washes
that create a translucent and exquisite
surface.
Jeffrey Filbert exhibits two groups of works –
earlier ceramic clay pieces where a more
compact figure-like form is enveloped in an
organic world of complex yet delicate and
playful shapes – leaf-like protrusions,
spirals, grids, cages, etc. In the more recent
work the vertical axis “personified” by
simplified elongated plaster forms,
sometimes placed within a steel grid, is
crowned with rectangular pieces of glass
painted with white and red enamel. Quoting
from one of the poems by the artist -  “The
figure is a bridge between sky and earth.”
Dima Karabchievsky, Eternal Love,
78x36in.oil/canvas, 2006
Jeffrey Filbert, Figure I, Plaster, glass, enamel,
3x3x12 in., 2006
Alexander Katsenelinboigen, Reflection, 40x60in, oil/canvas/ 2006