Part 1 of BDG’s Summer Collective includes works by Ayline Olukman, Elizabeth Allison, Federico Infante, Beth Carter, Matteo Pugliese and the gallery’s newest addition, Jorge Enrique.

Olukman returns to BDG following her success in last year’s summer shows with a collection of all new brightly colored mixed media pieces. Olukman, a young native of Strasbourg, France, is talented in various mediums; she works with silkscreen, oil paint, collage and photography. She frequently creates mixed media pieces using her own travel photographs combined with old photos, primarily from the 1950’s. Cuban artist Jorge Enrique also creates vibrant mixed media pieces but with completely different results. Limiting each composition to a few rich colors, he creates vibrant, aesthetically interesting abstract works using layers of paint and resin. We introduced a small selection of Enrique’s works to the gallery in spring of this year and are excited to present new works this summer.

Elizabeth Allison’s watercolors continue to impress artists and admirers alike; her atmospheric landscapes verge on abstraction while the visible paint drips and spots allow the viewer to gain some insight into her process. Her latest works include abstract figurative works along with several of her characteristic landscapes and boats in a palette of primarily light greys and blues. Infante, a young Chilean artist, returns to BDG ahead of his upcoming fall solo exhibition, The Space Between. Since his introduction to the gallery last year, his work has consistently sold out. His works, greatly inspired by the Chilean landscape, are unique in their juxtaposition of abstraction with figurative sections.

We are excited to introduce a selection of new bronze pieces by Italian sculptor Matteo Pugliese. His classically rendered male nudes are brought to life and made contemporary by their tense and animated positions. They emerge from walls, literally pulling and pushing themselves from a world we cannot see. The work of English sculptor Beth Carter is simultaneously whimsical, peculiar and melancholy; Carter’s sculptures, deeply rooted in mythology, are part of a genre the artist describes as “magical realism.”

What ties these artists together is their willingness to explore the unknown through their art. Whether it is Infante’s and Allison’s unique blends of abstraction and figuration, the unclear worlds Pugliese and Carter’s sculptures emerge from, the juxtaposition of past and present in Olukman’s work or Enrique’s abstract colorful pieces, there is a level of uncertainty, curiosity and wonder in each artist’s work. This collection of work is very much open for each viewer to contemplate and interpret.