ANDREW RAFACZ is pleased to announce Little Infinity, a solo exhibition of new works from Julia Bland in Gallery Two. The exhibition opens Friday, April 14th and continues through Saturday, May 27th, 2023. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

With Little Infinity, Julia Bland presents a series of new intimately-sized sewn and knotted works that utilize linen threads and incorporate hand dying, braiding, and paint.

Bland’s compositions start with an array of geometric patterns and symmetrical forms. She then develops variations and contradictions out of her originally conceived forms. Each work requires a unique approach, as she riffs on the structures that both dominate and disrupt the overall image. Subsequently, the final works each propose different questions through their formal language, composition and materials. They seek different solutions, while expressing a unique conversation between structure, object, color, and space.

In some of the new works in this exhibition, linen fabric and canvas shapes are integrated into the surface, sometimes appearing to structure the smaller threads, and other times to float or be held up by intricately tied nets. Areas of raw linen thread reveal the early stages of the process, while some areas layer many separate processes and materials, melding the image and material in a singular enigmatic object.

Curator and writer Glenn Adamson discusses Bland’s newest work in a recent essay, inadvertently speaking to the title of this exhibition: ‘Each one of these experiments, even the littlest and simplest of them, seems a world unto itself. Accumulated from years’ worth of technical research, historical reference, and aesthetic investigation, her works also feel almost scarily generative, implying countless ways forward. As much as she’s already done, Bland is always just getting going, discovering what the present tense can look like.’

JULIA BLAND (American, b. 1986) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from RISD in 2008 and her MFA from The Yale School of Art in 2012. She has been an artist in residence at The Macdowell Colony, Yaddo, The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lighthouse Works, The Sharpe-Walentas Space Program, and The Shandaken Project: Storm King. She has received awards including The Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship from Yaddo, The Carol Scholsberg Memorial Prize, and The Florence Leif Award for Excellence in Painting. Recent solo exhibitions include Derek Eller Gallery (New York, NY), The Lighthouse Works (Fisher’s Island, NY), Helena Anrather (New York, NY), and On Stellar Rays (New York, NY). Recent group exhibitions include The Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), Derek Eller Gallery (New York, NY), John Michael Kohler Art Center (Sheboygan, WI), Chambers Fine Art (Beijing, CN), and Yossi Milo Gallery (New York, NY). She has exhibited at art fairs in New York, Miami, and Dallas. The gallery will present her work at EXPO (Chicago, IL) and NADA (New York, NY) this spring. She has been reviewed or featured in many publications, including The New York Times and The Brooklyn Rail. Her work is included in numerous public and private collections. This is her second solo exhibition with the gallery.