Nicole Phungrasamee Fein
Joy Fields
May 13, 2021 - July 3, 2021
Nicole Phungrasamee Fein at Nancy Hoffman Gallery
Watercolor has long been the medium of choice for Nicole Phungrasamee Fein whose first solo exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery opens on May 13 and continues through July 3, 2021. For two decades, she has made drawings sequentially, always working on paper. With a meticulous hand and singular focus, Fein challenges the conventional use of watercolor and defies the limitations one associates with the medium. Fein builds fields of complex, luminous color and creates patterns using a technique she calls “speckle,” a highly controlled way of manipulating veils of color. The artist has said: “Slowing down is fundamental to what I do. I approach each work in a methodical, iterative manner.” Thus, the works have a meditative, ethereal quality and a quiet strength as they address the square format of the paper. The central field of paint might be a circle, a square, or a whimsical geometric configuration.
Over the years Fein has distilled her imagery following her quiet yet profound voice. Each work is an object of contemplation, coming to life as the artist adds one layer after another until the image resolves. It may be an eclipsing color wheel or a circle emerging as a mirage-like planet born from a drop of water. It may be a pinwheel-like form of varied colors or a square created with thin speckled washes which live and breathe at the edge of the image as secrets that lie beneath what appears to be green, russet or blue. The droplets intermingle on the paper, creating rich fields and dense composites of color.
Fein’s works are never representational; they are abstract, often suggestive of landscape or falling rain, always centered within the square. Following seven years of eschewing color for black, grey, white and silver, Fein rediscovered the full color spectrum this past autumn, injecting an air of positivity into this series of “Joy Fields.” In this dark time of profound loss, there is more than a glimmer of hope and beauty in the jewel-colored works, each intimate in scale, the totality a quiet symphony.