Charline von Heyl

September 12 - October 10, 1998

537 W 22nd Street

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHARLINE von HEYL
September 12 - October 10, 1998
Opening reception: Saturday, September 12, 6-8 pm

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce the second solo show of paintings by Charline von Heyl. The opening reception is Saturday, September 12, from 6-8 pm. The exhibition continues through October 10.

The exhibition consists of 7 large oil canvases and is the first for Charline von Heyl since her move from Berlin to New York. Von Heyl's previous work was described as blurring the distinctions between abstraction and figuration. She used the method of collage to reveal and obscure and push and pull layers of shapes and images on the canvas, challenging the viewer to decipher her iconography.

Charline von Heyl continues to escape definition in her new paintings, though without the element of collage. Her canvases look as if they are in the process of being negated, with pools of paint, sometimes transparent, other times matte, inundating the canvas. Through this constanting reworking "...we perceive a tension: on one hand, associations with the world of objects are forever being prompted, while on the other hand, those very associations are constantly being smudged away by the painterly process. Here, the principle of overpainting becomes a stylistic means of establishing form."

Charline von Heyl will have a solo exhibition running concurrently at Galerie Gisela Capitain in Cologne. The show opens September 18. A catalogue published by both Friedrich Petzel Gallery and Galerie Gisela Capitain is available upon request.

For further information, please contact Sarah Cohen at (212) 334-9466.