(HUDSON, N.Y.) – There will be an opening reception for Zen Dot Energy, a series of paintings by Woodstock artist Merrill Steiger, at FRG Objects & Design/Art on Saturday, September 5, 2015, from 6 to 9pm. The paintings are inspired aboriginal art, power spots, and India’s tantric traditions of circles and chakras.

Merrill Steiger is a mid-career artist, living and working in New York City and Woodstock, N.Y. She has exhibited extensively in both solo and group exhibitions at museums, university galleries, art fairs, and galleries nationwide. The most recent solo exhibitions include Spectrum Miami in Miami and ArtExpo and the Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York City. Her work is also housed in a number of public, private, and permanent collections.
Steiger says, “The Zen Dot paintings have their sources in my own life experiences, including my connection to the art of ancient cultures and my personal path of spiritual self-discovery. It is my belief that while we mostly live in our conscious thoughts, we remain largely unaware of the depths of the unconscious and the spiritual dimension of our own being. These paintings are a way to access a sense of that deeper level of our inner selves.”

 

The obsessive detailing of the Zen Dot Energy series emanates a universally understood electric current felt across cultural boundaries, says Steiger, who deploys pointillism, scale shift, color harmony and spatial involution to give the viewer a sense of hallucinatory vibration.

Early in her artistic career, Steiger developed an interest in “color fragmentation,” juxtaposing strong colors using hard-edged shapes. In the mid-1970s, a visit to Mexico revealed her connection to the art of ancient cultures, which informed her own work and became a recurring theme.

 

Visiting spiritual power spots, or geographic sites charged with positive energy, has brought her into contact with the art of aboriginal Australians, and the indigenous traditions of Africa and Asia, including Cambodia, Vietnam, India, the Himalayas, and Japan. The artist’s travels, study, and life experiences in such places continue to be a strong influence and inspiration to her work.

 

In 1999, an extended art meditation brought on an intuitive transformation and a reflection of India’s tantric traditions of circles and chakras, which eventually led to the completion of the Zen Dot Energy series in 2004.

Zen Dot Energy will be on view through November 2015.

 

FRG OBJECTS & DESIGN / ART

217 Warren Street, 2nd Floor

Hudson, New York 12534

 

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