Seth Koen - Ellipsis

January 24 - March 1, 2008

Deceptively simple, Koen's work has typically included materials such as yarn, thread, and needle. In his new work, however, Koen supplements his ambiguous forms and crocheted, orb-like sculptures with hand-carved wooden pieces that interact quietly with the softer components. The wooden forms themselves are hand-whittled and sanded from maple stock. In addition to evoking the rustic aesthetic of the artisan, the wooden pieces are understated objects that simultaneously embody both pictoral and physical space, simple lines and concrete forms.

Koen's monochromatic combinations of balls, loops, and lines seem to draw inspiration from the bricolage of a children's art class. However, his unembellished, ostensibly uncomplicated materials interact in ways that ultimately defy spectators' expectations. While Koen's work evokes a sense of childlike play and rudimentary experimentation, his minimal use of color, form, and shape points to a gestural purity that reduces his pieces to their basic elements while seemingly transforming them into neat analogies for far more complex phenomena.