The Riverside Gallery, in Hackensack, NJ, presents a trio exhibition of works by Sabrina Puppin, Joan Reutershan, and Joyce Pommer, titled Abstraction, Layers, and Perception. The exhibition will open on March 31st and close on April 13th, 2023, with an opening reception on March 31st, Friday, from 5 to 7 pm. 

Are we able to trust our perception? Is our own perception purely an artificial construction of the mind or is it rooted in some kind of underlying truth or objective reality? What can abstraction tell us about reality and perception, and, in turn, our own consciousness and identity? If our perception, reality, and identity have layers, what is left when we peel away those layers? When we use painting as a tool to inquire and reflect on ourselves in order to know ourselves, what are we able to learn? 

The exhibition focuses on the dialogue between our perception and painting (in terms of its visual language and methodology of layering), where abstraction plays a key role, becoming the underlying truth as reality on the surface breaks down.

Due to the problems of illusion and hallucination, perception has problems in facilitating a true understanding of reality. The play with abstraction may be a way forward from the limitations of perception in understanding truth and reality. 

There can be a feedback loop between the artist's perception and abstraction. When the artist makes an abstraction based on one's perception, the result includes perceptual abstraction, which is a historical term to describe abstract art from the 1950s in reaction against Abstract Expressionism, such as Hard-Edge Painting, Minimal art, and Op art. Perceptual abstraction is defined as having an emphasis on clarity and precision based on objective perception, rather than the expressive and painterly qualities.

The works featured in the exhibition tend to deviate from the understanding of objective perception as expressed by the artists behind the perceptual abstraction. Sabrina Puppin's works utilize drip painting and mainly express the distortions of reality and the subjectivity of perception and understanding of reality. Joyce Pommer uses mixed media and collage to deal with the process of painting as a way of improvising with various materials and colors and to rely on her perception and intuition for abstraction to create unified and harmonious compositions. Joan Reutershan utilizes geometric and abstract compositions that sometimes embed figurative abstract elements, akin to the 1980s computer graphics aesthetics of Laura Owens, to depict the streets of Brooklyn and New York City, where she resides.

About the Artists: