Blackston is pleased to present Long Standing, Rachel Beach's second solo exhibition at the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held on Sunday, September 8th from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition runs through Sunday, October 27th.

A formidable yet approachable presence in the gallery, Beach's new work is comprised of free-standing, painted wooden, faceted symmetrical and contrapposto sculptural columns. The sculptures are rubbed with oil and pigments that vary in degrees of finish and application and work materially to flatten edges and enhance the play between concrete and negative space, foreground and background, lightness and mass. Activated by geometric voids, the works balance improbably - almost precariously -- yet the overall impression is one of solidity in depth and footprint.

This exhibition builds on Beach's contemplation of spatial and perceptive dissonance, moving from her previous exploration of broader architectural space to the more intimate physicality of human-scale sculpture. Beach remains focused on the manner in which experimenting with an object's form, volume, edge and surface - including the space around it and its relationship to the other objects - can transform the object's presence.

Beach is also interested in the source of visual references. By using the shapes of leftover remnants from prior works as a departure point for her new work, Beach's process addresses the lineage of images and form in human and archeological history through the lens of her own experience. Her particular area of investigation is in the difference between the depiction of something and the real object and the conflation of the two. By using space and form to create a sense of illusory mystery and impossibility, Beach creates her own formal mash-up from human history.

Beach was born in London, Canada and lives in New York. She received her MFA from Yale University in 2001 and BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1998. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions and galleries in the United States and Canada including, most recently, the Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK; Lennon Weinberg, New York, NY; Mixed Greens, New York, NY; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art and MSVU Art Gallery in Canada. She is a recent recipient of a Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Residency (2013-14), a Pollack-Krasner Grant, a Yaddo Artist Residency, a Canada Council for the Arts grant, an Artist Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop and Socrates Sculpture Park grant. Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, among other publications.