Another outgrowth of the expanding digital space for art, Maple Street Construct’s exhibition program features couplings of local/regional artists with those in Los Angeles. An active site especially focused on intersections between art and architecture, it posts new shows twice a month.
Opening on June 5, Between Nonchalant and Relaxed features the duo of Robin Donaldson (LA) and Thomas Prinz (Omaha). Donaldson is a partner in the architectural design firm Shubin Donaldson, and his exhibition A Surfer’s Time in 2019 at MSC featured his paintings on wood—all materials sourced from big box stores that allowed him to “use common materials in an uncommon way.”
This makes Donaldson a great analog to the work of Prinz, also an architect and one of the MSC founders. Prinz is known these days for his collage work—often colorful, large scale, layered compositions constructed from bits and strips of painted and digitally designed papers—that often read as abstracted urbanscapes, distressed by the passage of time.
Opening on June 19 is the digital mashup of Nicolas Shake (LA) and Levi Robb (Des Moines), which brings together a pair of artists who translate their approach to the urban/wild divide into their mixed media works. Shake transforms discarded objects found at the edges of the desert into wall and floor sculptures as well as fully contextualized installations, aiming to reinvest these unwanted items with an aesthetic dignity.
Robb’s work reconstructs a formal intersection between the natural and structured environment, including relationships between the permanent and the material. He works in sculpture, installation, painting and printmaking.
Maple Street Construct’s exhibitions may be seen online at www.maplestreetconstruct.com.