"The exhibition "Synesthesia: Energy manifestations. Paintings by Ellen Salk, sound installation by Christopher Adler”, has grown out of a longstanding professional concern with a painting's ability to create vibrational states which are resonant with those experienced through listening to music.
Beyond that, it is my belief that many of the organizing principles used to develop an image are similar to those used to build a musical experience. For at least a decade, I have used repetition and pulsation to create both a ground and a tension in my work. I have used music which is concerned with these elements to inform me.
It is the breaking of the repetition, both by shifts of speed and imagery, that allows the viewer to see and experience a deep engagement with the work. If the paintings can be divided into categories, they would move from extremely subtle to fully expressed, reflecting the shifts in states of consciousness which are familiar to us all. The sonic environment created by Christopher Adler will proceed through a range which at times will be barely perceptible and at other times much more present. The two modalities are of equal importance and should lead the viewer to a fuller experience of both." ~ Ellen Salk
SYNESTHESIA: MANIFESTATIONS OF ENERGY, PAINTINGS BY ELLEN SALK AND SOUND BY CHRISTOPHER ADLER
February 2 - May 5, 2013
The Groves Auditorium
Oceanside Museum - San Diego , California
Opening Reception
Saturday, February 2
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Complimentary OMA members
$10 Nonmembers
Panel Discussion with Ellen Salk, Christopher Adler and Sally Yard
Join Ellen Salk, Christopher Adler and art critic Sally Yard for a panel discussion about the exhibition
Saturday, April 13
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Complimentary OMA members
Complimentary with museum admission
Pulsating with energy and tension, Ellen Salk’s abstract paintings reference her interest in science, elemental forms, entropy, Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism. In collaboration with experimental sound artist Christopher Adler, Salk has designed an immersive installation that explores the vibrational quality of her images. Designed in response to Salk’s work, Adler’s music heightens the viewer’s senses eliciting a meditative and spiritual experience.
Working in a ritualistic process that involves layers of calligraphic marks and geometric grids, Ellen Salk’s large scale paintings are full of dynamic juxtapositions. The contrasts of light and dark, organic and geometric, thin versus thick lines, and warm against cool colors create a powerful sense of depth and mystery. Drawing inspiration from numerous artists, Salk cites the elegant and simplified line quality of Japanese painter and print-maker Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) as having a direct influence on her lyrical system of mark making. Salk’s work is also informed by the minimalistic paintings of Agnes Martin, the wall drawings of Sol Lewitt and the gestural intuitive mark making of the Abstract Expressionists. Many of the new paintings in the exhibition also reference a continuation of her Shaker Loops series that she has been working on for over a decade that involves layers of repetitive gestural marks that evokes a tension between simplicity and energetic movement.
The title of the exhibition, Synesthesia, reflects Salk’s interest of the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli, in this case visual and sound. According to Salk, “I imagine the sound interacting directly with the images, with the viewer being drawn from images to sound and back in an experience which will open the senses.” Synesthesia in art can be seen in the work of Wassily Kandinsky whose paintings explored the connections or synthesis between color and musical instruments.
Ellen Salk received her M.A. in Painting from the School of Art, Design and Art History at San Diego State University in 1979. Recent select exhibitions include solo presentations at the Keller Gallery at Point Loma Nazarene University in 2011, the Athaneaum Music and Arts Library in 2010 and at the Salk Institute in 2008. Salk was also featured in Quint: Three Decades of Contemporary Art at the California Center for the Arts in 2009. Christopher Adler is a composer, performer and improviser living in San Diego, California. Adler is currently Professor of Music at the University of San Diego where he teaches composition, sound art, theory, twentieth-century music, and world music. He received Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in composition from Duke University and Bachelor’s degrees in music composition and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Adler is collaborating with Salk to create an original score approximately eight hours long that is directly informed by his interaction with Salk and his first-hand experience of the vibrational energy of her paintings.
Above images by Ellen Salk.
