Channa Horwitz at Ghebaly Gallery

The work of late artist Channa Horwitz, to me, is complex and mesmerizing, thoughtful and precise, one-of-a-kind. Ghebaly Gallery exhibited her work in 2016 (To The Top, pictured in this post) and will soon be showcasing a series of previously unseen drawings (Structures, opening September 15).

From the Ghebaly Gallery press release:
Known for her tightly controlled approach to geometric abstraction, Channa Horwitz famously devised a drawing system in the late 1960s called Sonakinatography in which sound, motion, and space are tracked using beats of time graphed on eight-to-the-inch square grids. In each, the numbers one through eight are represented graphically by color or symbol and plotted according to an initiating set of rules that ultimately created her compositions. Sequencing, seriality, and iteration are all key dynamics in these works.

This notation system assumed a generative power within Horwitz’s practice, with new series spawning from existing ones like the branching of an evolutionary tree. With each alteration of the starting variables in the system, a new body of work arose. In some, multiple sequences are superimposed into a single drawing, as in the works from the Canon series. In others, like the works from the series Slices, sequences are visualized rotating in space and cross sectioned, “as if it was the front slice in a loaf of bread,” as she put it. Horwitz built her visual systems with an exacting rigor, yet was consistently guided by an openness to new possibilities embedded within her existing architectures.

Opening reception for Channa Horwitz Structures is September 15, 7–10 PM, at Ghebaly Gallery.