Julius Linnenbrink/Lorna Williams

September 8 – October 13, 2019

Cindy Rucker Gallery is pleased to present new works by Düsseldorf-based artist Julius Linnenbrink and New Orleans-based artist Lorna Williams. This is Julius Linnenbrink’s first show in the US and Lorna Williams’ second show with the gallery.

Philosophers have debated the relationship between thought and consciousness in the mind and the brain as a part of the human body for centuries: dualism maintains that there is a distinction between the two while monism argues a unifying reality within which everything can be explained. The two artists in this exhibition represent both aspects of the mind-body debate while bringing forth many other juxtapositions such as painting/sculpture, air/earth, old world/ new world. As there is no real way to prove one or the other, this debate continues without an answer.

Julius Linnenbrink (b. 1989, Herdecke, Germany) begins his paintings in what he calls the “abstract space or location of the mind.” Working quickly with acrylics, Linnenbrink allows himself the freedom to create his sweeping paintings with great focus and concentration on the piece itself, its color values and its composition. These seemingly quiet works are all about action, each movement of the artist’s hand is seen and felt. Building up the paintings in thin, sometimes undulating layers, Linnenbrink invites his viewer to enter into the depths of the spaces he creates. The “flow” in their creation reveals the artist's thought, action, reaction, time, trust, and sincerity.

Lorna Williams (b. 1986, New Orleans, LA, USA) uses the body as the tool and subject of her work. Drawing inspiration from her materials, Williams creates sculptures from natural and human-made objects: bike chains, skeletal figures, vials, bird’s nests, snake skins, nails, detritus from everyday life. Sometimes kinetic, often anthropomorphic, always lyrical, Williams leans into the materiality of her pieces while allowing her viewer to find their own metaphors, spiritual, conceptual, or simple, all the while touching upon the universality of human experience while navigating her own.