Joanne
Greenbaum’s painting process
lends itself directly to the monotype medium.
She creates work by the continual accretion of odd-ball shapes and
architectonic forms which congregate or overlap as if seeking their own
nest-like
niches within a composition. Unexpected
negative space tweaks these monotypes into a quirky orbit that is
somehow just
right and aesthetically satisfying. Sometimes
Greenbaum employs toxic colors that battle and abrade amid graphic
stencil
forms and transfer imagery or else she uses a
singular, unexpected color tone emphasizing lozenge-like forms that
link and gravitate. These bold
elements that predominate throughout her new monotypes– the punctured
disks, the
cellular
groupings, the boxy lattice work—anchor each work as the eye
fishtails
around seeking some sort of visual equilibrium.
The outcome is that Greenbaum has succeeded in creating a vocabulary
that seduces and convinces, that drags the viewer into the complexities
of both
process and private vision.