Counterpoint

Counterpoint features works by Dimitri Kozyrev and Beatrice Mandelman, artists who both developed abstract practices in the Western United States. Although their timelines never quite overlapped, the formal elements present in their paintings visually parallel. Together, Kozyrev and Mandelman interplay the masculine and feminine as well as the precise and fluid.

The term counterpoint references a musical term –– notes independent in rhythm, but interdependent in harmony. Here, Kozyrev and Mandelman, with independent narratives, create an observational interdependence of lines, planes, shapes and vibrant palettes inspired by the move out West.

Dimitri Kozyrev is an artist from Leningrad, USSR who now lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon moving to the United States in the early 90s, Kozyrev pursued both his BFA and MFA in painting and now works in his studio full-time.

Kozyrev’s work concerns the intersection of physical and mental landscapes with real world events. He uses modernist, constructivist methods to abstract pictorial space –– acknowledging the scars and ruins left behind by war and human impact. Kozyrev’s approach is layered; hinting at moments of realism, but ultimately concluding with abstraction.

Beatrice Mandelman (1912 – 1998) was a prolific Modern artist associated with the group known as the Taos Moderns. Mandelman began her career in New York before moving to Taos, New Mexico in 1944 with fellow artist and husband Louis Ribak.

As she moved out West, Mandelman’s paintings transitioned from representational cityscapes, landscapes and still lifes to those which were abstract. Her compositions are vibrant and full of energy, often with a densely-packed network of overlapping geometric and organic shapes. Mandelman’s work is approached with playfulness, but also with purpose and restraint.