A Much-Needed Color Hit: A review of All colors Make Me Happy at Atlantic Gallery in New York City

A Much-Needed Color Hit: A review of All colors Make Me Happy at Atlantic Gallery in New York City

I visited Atlantic Gallery, in Chelsea in New York City, to view the three-person exhibition All Colors Make Me Happy. This riotously colorful exhibition features the work of Lola Baltzell, Deborah Peeples and Ruth Sack, all members of New England Wax , a group of artists using hot or cold wax as their primary medium.

When entering the gallery one is met with a vibrant array of, not only color, but unique and diverse interpretations of the usage of pigments, shape, composition and process.

Deborah Peeples’ large, exuberant paintings use the grid as an anchor, reminiscent of a ‘Pop Art’ sensibility. She expertly layers pigmented encaustic, utilizing the circle to set up systems on each wood panel. What comes to mind are gumballs, beach balls, floating, mysterious planets, all working in harmony, bold and opaque. Upon closer inspection, one can see how she meticulously layers and scrapes the surface, adding new layers and shapes, creating a subtle depth that only seems possible with the use of encaustic. Peeples’ surfaces are quite flat but there is evidence of her hand in the act of creating these playfully patterned works.

Deborah Peeples, Out With Lanterns (left), Undulation (right), encaustic on panel, 40″ x 46″, 2024

Most of her pieces are large yet she also has a small series, which she refers to as ‘portraits’, each measuring 8” x 8”. Hung together on the wall as a group, they can be viewed as individual pieces, but they also work quite well as one, large gridded piece.

Deborah Peeples, (top) Portrait 22,17,3 (bottom) Portrait 23,11,14, encaustic on panel, 8″ x 8″, 2024

The work of Lola Baltzell utilizes color as well, but in a more spontaneous fashion. The artist’s hand is apparent in the work as she creates initial lines, words and marks, then transforms them into expressive and emotionally complex compositions. I was particularly drawn to the grouping of four paintings that had extremely provocative titles: Unsung Innocent Surrender, Let All of Life Be An Unfettered Howl, Those Wilds , I Am A Former Forest Elf. I could feel a story unfolding as I looked at each panel. Baltzell’s Work is suggestive of the movement, poetry and musicality of Wassily Kandinsky.

Lola Baltzell, (top) Unsung Innocent Surrender, Those Wilds, encaustic on panel, 20″ x 20″, 2024, (bottom) Let all Life Be an Unfettered Howl, I am a former Forest Elf.

There is a playful, yet alien, world in the sculptures of Ruth Sack. Sack’s anthropomorphic creatures populate the gallery in one large, mutant army on display on a table and on smaller pedestals.

Ruth Sack, diptych, Two Green Beans and Two Black Beans, 32″ x 16″, encaustic on wood panels, Ruth Sack, (on pedastal in rear) The Conversation, 10″ x 11″ x 3.5″, encaustic and found objects, (foreground) Crumpled, 8.5″ x 5″ x 5.5″

Her sculptures are reminiscent of the large, whimsical structures of Niki de Sainte Phalle. Upon reading about Sack’s process and influences, she was indeed inspired by an early experience with the work of de Sainte Phalle and it is clear that it had a lasting impression on her. Her sculptures, which primarily sit on a flat surface, range in size from eight-inches high to one that is nineteen-inches. This piece, titled Vortex, the only wall-mounted piece, brings to mind a cornucopia, brimming with colors, orbs, cubes and oddly layered shapes. The piece is overall a triangular object that looks as if its ready to explode in a barrage of color.

Ruth Sack, Vortex, encaustic and found objects, 19″ x 8″ x 5″, 2023

This exhibition is a symphony of color and shape, and viewing it indeed made me happy!

All Colors Make Me Happy is on exhibit until November 2nd at Atlantic Gallery in the Landmark Arts Building in Chelsea: 548 West 28th Street, Suite 540, NY, NY 10001

For more information: atlanticgallery.org

Written by Melissa Rubin, a member of New England Wax