In MIST, four artists are brought together to take the inspiration of summer, and find a way to break through the heatwaves that have recently hit New York. There is a dialogue between the artists and their various takes on works on paper, bringing forth summer sensibilities, airiness, freshness, and a feeling of being free. Each artist offers a different series of works.
Walking into the gallery, I gravitated immediately to the back corner. Lined with deckled- edge papers that slightly hovered off the wall, I was greeted with the work of Nell Waters. These pieces become an abstraction of nature and an illustration of ethereal, hovering feelings. The fleeting flashes of greens and yellows washing over handmade paper resemble sunspots. It’s as if the washes of watercolor are leaves falling slowly in the breeze, the sun glowing vibrantly through them. These small-scale watercolors explore gesture, transience, and the meditative quality of diluted pigment on paper. Separate from Waters’ usual large-scale oil paintings, these works reflect a quiet, poetic response to the natural world, and carry with them the show’s theme of a misty oasis, an escape into nature.
The title, MIST, refers to the feeling of something refreshing and how a mist or fog can appear and reappear, softly and quietly. In thinking of this theme, the materiality of things, the lightness of paper becomes prevalent. And while the images and pieces are meant to be a quieter read, a sustained longer experience for viewers, the softness of each of the pieces speak volumes the longer you spend time with them.
This is especially true in the work of Sue Carlson, a student of Jeremy Gilbert Roth. The captivating canvas piece, Indigo Twilight, the only canvas within the works on paper show, hovers over the brick wall, stoic and impactful. The striking blue is from a Nordic influence; Carlson was traveling and brought in rune-like shapes for the circle you see faintly in the middle. The framed acrylic pieces are from her Hope Rising series and resemble heat rising. The radiating color and energy are an interesting contrast to the deep, still space that the blue painting creates.
On the wall right next to the bricks, square pieces in a straight line continue with the radiating energy theme. These seven pieces from her Reflection series are inspired by music. With Carlson being a classically trained musician, compositions 1-7 feature the color bands saturated with paint based on “pitch” that a music composition creates—the higher the pitch, the more colors we see. In an up and down motion, with piece number 1 being a lower pitch, a lower saturation, whereas the middle piece is higher. Piece 7 is low again with the radiating line bands and the ethereal presence of the colors.
This appearing and reappearing of colors and “sound frequencies” act like a mist in their own way, with the frequencies dissipating with the light, and fading away as the music ends. Light changes over time, and music also exists within time. These paintings reflect the motion of music through time and embody the experience of moving within it through light and darkness, with saturation of color and pigment being the key factor.
The larger gallery wall holds a grouping of line drawings by Holly Miller. These ink drawings are a departure from more rigid, pre planned line paintings that Miller usually creates. This departure was due to the heat, and the labor painting would bring within the hot summer months, like Nell Waters, Miller felt that working with paper is lighter. Miller still uses focused lines and builds up color by intuition, to create scenes and resemblances through this glow series. For example, the green piece is hung high to feel like looking up at trees. In various pieces in the series, the line work is integrated with spots of threads, these intricate details require you to get up close to see.
Once you get up close to enjoy the details of the various line lengths the overlaps of color become color radiations, and bring with them a surprise when you step back as well. The bursts of color resemble fireworks and by stepping back, you can see the breath of color and the glow against the empty space she left around each piece. The color remains contained but the energy continues to reverberate out with the lines blending into the vibrant colors. This resembles how the artist is working intuitively and loose but is still maintaining line sensibility and the presence of the marks as saturation. Like in Miller’s previous works, these works on paper convey an intimate immediacy while retaining a spontaneous geometry.
Holly Miller, Glow Series, Pen and ink, thread and graphite on paper, photo courtesy of Taylor Bielecki
Sylvia Schwartz’ handmade paper works are created from pulp she placed on molds that she physically makes. With this process, physicality becomes a key aspect to these works, and the presence of this physicality becomes the fingerprint of the artist. The coils on abaca paper begin to resemble a totem, with a vertical aging quality. In making the pieces, the pigment goes directly into pulp and sits wonderfully within the cotton, and when it is placed, it looks like algae growing on rocks. The rougher texture shows an aging of sorts. In her travels, she saw these starkly pigmented rocks. With these paper pieces, nature’s pigments emerge.
Schwartz’s smaller wall piece, Temperature Gauge, and the larger work, Word Landscape and Green, are also inspired by pigmented rock formations. Schwartz realized nature creates so much color and wanted these pieces to capture that vibrant imprint, just as much as her own fingerprints. After pulling the sheet off the mold, her fingerprints remain, pressed into the pulp from the mold she pressed and hand built. The peeling of the paper acts like a skin shedding lightly off. Something new emerges, fresh and inspired.
Across from Waters’ watercolors is Schwartz’s white piece titled Cirrus, named from a summer cloud, billowing and feather-like. The lighter thread flows through the piece and seems to hover within the paper. Schwartz guides it like a conductor, allowing it to diverge and converge, settling into form. With each piece, what remains is a tactile imprint of presence, both from the artist and from nature. A note from Schwartz’ statement struck me, “It feels like I’m sculpting, drawing and painting simultaneously,” she writes. “The flow of the pulp—a natural phenomenon in itself—meshes with the forms to join the natural and human elements.”
I felt this statement encompassed the entirety of the exhibition. Each artist is inspired by nature and existence in many forms (light, memory, and music), exploring new materials and capturing fleeting moments of color, form, and line. This allows them the opportunity to create something that is both here physically and not at all. Experiences dissipate and meld into new ones, just as nature continues to grow and evolve throughout the seasons. This show is one that rewards a closer introspection. A calming sense of wonder and discovery takes over as you begin to learn about the new processes these artists took on. The summer energy reverberates throughout the gallery and each of the works carry great amounts of energy within them.
MIST at Helm Contemporary
Aug. 14th – Sep 6,132 Bowery, New York NY @helmcontemporary
About the Writer: Taylor Bielecki lives in Gowanus, where her studio is, and works at Pratt Institute, where she earned her MFA, she also studied at Penn State, where she earned a BA in English and a BFA in Fine Arts. She finished as a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s VSA National Emerging Young Artist program for 2017; where she earned an award of Excellence. She has shown prints internationally in a print exchange in Australia and exhibitions in Dubai, India and the Glasgow School of Art. She has also shown paintings internationally in Gallery 24N, PhilaMOCA’s juried exhibitions in Philadelphia, Pa., Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack, NY, BWAC in Red Hook, the 2025 Zero Art Fair in Chelsea, and Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn. Taylor has written for TUSSLE magazine and joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer.