Blurring the Line

Cerulean Arts is pleased to present Blurring the Line, featuring paintings by Ruslan Khais, Howard Neifeld, Nancy Sophy and Nina Yocom which straddle the line between representation and abstraction. Ruslan Khais strives to find a painting language akin to music, one which allows him to emotionally reflect on the reality of the present, but beyond a literal description of reality.  The physicality of oil paint, color, and gesture are of paramount importance in his works. Nina Yocom allows the flow of alcohol ink to organically form the structure of her paintings, suggesting botanical and landscape subjects.  She seeks to express gratitude, hope, healing, and self-acceptance in her work.  Working with poppy seed oil and pastel, Nancy Sophy’s atmospheric imagery draws on memory and a sense of dislocation.  One becomes lost within the transforming effects of light on, within, and through her surface.  In Howard Neifeld’s gouache and acrylic paintings, abstract shapes represent movement, color, and light. These “life forms” clash and struggle, shift space and sometimes connect with living forms in the landscape.