Leon Brown

Reposted from Tinsquo.com.

Adjacent To Life, presents Proof of Life by Matt Hart.

Leon Brown writes:

@matthartisdeadtome returns with a potent collection of new work. Drawing from street, folk art, and tattoo culture, Hart reimagines memento mori.

He explains the work’s physicality: “These works are all on wood and custom framed. The images are either wood cutouts or carvings, with some containing pouches of herbal spellwork. The paint is acrylic, ink, black salt and ash, finished with a layer of resin.”

Hart’s distinctive artistic language creates a powerful juxtaposition between his signature staging — polka dots and custom framing — and stark foreground objects. This contrast opens an interstitial space for emotive interpretation. The detailed line work, vibrant dot patterns, and unique materials combine to elicit a visual and tactile tension that merges popular culture aesthetics with ancient magic and ritual.

The result is a collection that’s engaging and rich. Spend time with these pieces and appreciate the alchemy at play.

Proof of Life. On view September 5 – October 3, 2025 @ninthstreetespresso – 341 E. 10th St., NYC.

Reposted from Tinsquo.com.

Adjacent To Life, presents McAllen, Texas by Mike Marquez.

Leon Brown writes:

Photographer Mike Marquez exhibits his most recent collection of 15 color photographs taken at a carnival in McAllen, Texas in April 2025.

Marquez states: “This collection is a callback to what attracted me to photography in the first place, the freedom of the eye in deciding what to capture rather than the production of commercial object imagery.”

The desaturated atmosphere of each photograph presents like linen with the earthly shapes, tents, rails and people being cut from it. Marquez balances the carnival activity with the sky such that the foreground stands mostly as a notion of prominence and sentiment rather than simply the reality of the focal plane. The results are palpable and arresting.

Each of these 6″x7″ photographs are hand printed and custom framed, continuing a direct line between the particularity of the carnival equipment and the people captured within.

McAllen. Texas is on view through September 5, 2025 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist’s reception: Saturday, August 16, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

Reposted from Tinsquo.com

Adjacent To Life, presents Spheres of Influence by Joan Belmar.

Leon Brown writes:

In this selection from his ongoing series, Spheres of Influence, artist Joan Belmar invites us into a captivating galaxy of abstract cartography. Completed during Spring 2025, these paintings demonstrate the profound power of simple forms.

Belmar’s signature circles emerge as a direct response to the rigid structures of expectation. More than just shapes, these spheres are acts of quiet revolution, each one a testament to the artist’s willingness to present freedom as a theme central to his work.

The artist states; “I like to achieve saturation through color, and depth with transparency.” Executed in acrylic, oil and ink on paper, these finely balanced and bold compositions chart the dialogue between art, science and the unseen forces of orbit that shape our existence.

Spheres of Influence is on view through July 11, 2025 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist’s reception: Saturday, June 14, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

Reposted from Tinsquo.com.

Adjacent To Life, presents Small Works by Peter Stankiewicz.

Leon Brown writes:

Artist Peter Stankiewicz returns with his latest selection of sculptures completed between January 2020 and April 2025.

Stankiewicz states: “What you see here are the results in a long process of refinement. The arrangement is a grammar of sculpture, presenting a versatile and harmonious set of possibilities. But don’t believe everything you read.”

Utilizing plastic as a foundational element, Stankiewicz forms these pieces and meticulously layers airbrushed acrylic paint, embedding them within the grounding presence of cement. While this description offers a glimpse into his process, it only begins to suggest the attention to detail showing through subtle shifts in color, texture, and a precision of construction that rewards intimate viewing.

Each work is a manifestation of witness, wind, rain and sunlight, forms existing like epochs of time, interwoven but never touching. Human frailty and transience revealed to us through rust, shape and space. Approach these sculptures closely, linger and allow the layers of color and the exactingness of Stankiewicz’s execution to present.

Small Works is on view through June 13, 2025 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist’s reception: Saturday, May 18, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

Reposted from Tinsquo.com.

Adjacent To Life, presents Fragments of Light by Sandy Van Iderstine.

Leon Brown writes:

Sandy Van Iderstine brings us her most recent collection. Created in her New York and Toronto studios, these paintings represent 2024 and 2025 to date.

The genesis of these works can be found in palette shavings retrieved from the painting process. Van Iderstine collects, archives and considers these palette skins.

This studio ephemera – these relics of creative activity – are then revivified as the material basis for her new paintings. They serve as both starting point and through line for the delectation of painting as a cumulative endeavor and the natural world as the undergirding source of sustenance.

The artist states, “My work invites the viewer to explore a unique interplay of shapes, colours, transparencies and textures to create a dynamic and engaging visual experience.”

These paintings invite us into spaces far bigger than the form in which they are contained. Van Iderstine’s attention to detail – every square inch is meditated upon in order to illuminate the whole – eschews artifacts, providing us with an immersive adventure, peering through flora and circumnavigating clouds on a wave of iridescence.

With precision and natural depth Van Iderstine provokes thoughts of Constable and Turner, up close and candid.

Fragments of Light is on view through May 16, 2025 at the Adjacent To Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City). Artist’s reception: Saturday, April 19, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.