Mary Early: Līnea Studies

April 30 – June 11, 2022

Gallery 2112 is pleased to present Mary Early’s first solo exhibition of works on paper and wood panel. Early’s work over the last two decades has come to include drawings and schematics as an essential component in the development of temporary installation and site-specific works in beeswax. These schematic drawings serve as a durable and lasting precursor to the installation process, from conception through completion.

Mary Early: Līnea Studies includes a series of recent works in oil stick and sumi ink wash on paper, oil stick on wood panel, and Līnea XII, the twelfth in an ongoing series of vertical linear works begun in 2017. Līnea XII, a hanging work in beeswax, occupies the circular bay window of the gallery space, creating a louvered partition between the interior and the street.

Mary Early (born 1975, Washington, DC) lives and works in Washington, DC. She studied visual art, film, and video at Bennington College, and her work has been exhibited at the United States Botanic Garden, Washington Project for the Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Second Street Gallery, Hemphill Fine Arts, Galerie Im Ersten, Kloster Schloss Salem, Kunstlerbund Tubingen, the American University Museum, and the Sun Valley Museum of Art, among other regional and national galleries. Early’s work is included in the collections of the US Department of State/Embassy of Panama and Embassy of Jordan, the District of Columbia Art Bank, the American University Museum (Corcoran Collection).

Gallery 2112 is a Washington, DC gallery specializing in 20th Century Modern Art & Design with a focus on art from the Washington DC area. Past exhibitions include Maryanne Pollock: Rebirth the Earth, Noche Christ: Fantastical Visions, and Kenneth Victor Young.

Gallery 2112
2112 R Street NW
Washington DC 20008
www.gallery2112.com

Open Friday-Saturday 12-5 and by appointment

Recent Press:

Mary Early Līnea Studies

East City Art

By Eric Celarier, June 2, 2022

Mary Early’s exhibition Līnea Studies asks viewers to reconsider the front interior of the Dupont Circle row house that comprises Gallery 2112. The highlight of the show is Early’s sculpture of suspended beeswax rods, Līnea XII, which not only commands interest unto itself, but also opens up many possibilities for the Victorian parlor in which it is placed.

Read the complete review

In the Galleries: Mary Early

The Washington Post, Sunday Arts Section

By Mark Jenkins, June 5, 2022, Page E11

In Mary Early’s recent site-specific sculptures, all titled “Linea” plus a number, thin and uniformly shaped bars of beeswax are tied together and suspended in tight, regular sequences in open spaces. In her preparatory drawings for the minimalist installations, straight yellow lines rendered usually in wax crayon are aligned atop mottled, ink-wash backdrops. The D.C. artist’s Gallery 2112 show, “Linea Studies,” consists mostly of such drawings, but includes two 3D wax works.

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About Drawing:

Recent works on paper and wood panel developed from schematic floor plan drawings for installations of beeswax lines. Through my sculptural installations I devise ways to divide and demarcate space, inviting the viewer to a new way of experiencing space. Multiplying intersecting lines coalesce around a perspective point or rectangular grid, their increased or decreased density creating a highlight or a concentration point.

When preparing a drawing surface, whether on paper or wood panel, I begin with a light set of marks to create a grid – this grid provides a matrix for the placement of lines. I work in series, with the idea that an infinite number and combination of elements exist. Through drawing, I am able to plan complicated installations in advance and visualize the different possibilities offered by a single space.

While my sculptural installations are wholly temporary, these schematic drawings serve as a durable and lasting precursor to the installation process, from conception through completion.

- Mary Early, Washington DC, 2022