Black Abstract 1983 - 2011 (part 1)
June 7 - July 13, 2013
Black Abstract is an exhibition in two parts, presenting distinct chapters in the career of artist Mary Ann Aitken (b.
Detroit, 1960 - d. New York, 2012). For more than three decades, Aitken was a voracious artist whose output of
painting, works on paper, and mixed media collage was matched by a sense of intention that cut across her varied
subjects. Though Aitken studied and worked among the recognized artists of the Cass Corridor, her own art has yet
to be celebrated. This retrospective exhibition showcases two significant periods in her life's work: 1983-1989 and
2006-2011.
Aitken's touch was not light. In the 1980s, she was a mark-maker who depicted her environment with a heavy
palette. Thick layers of paint consumed whatever disposable material she could get her hands on, including linoleum
tile, newsprint, cardboard, and used paper. Her rough, unmediated impressions of unconsidered objects and
mundane street scenes reaffirm their existence.
In 1989, Aitken relocated to Brooklyn where she worked as an art therapist. Her work from 2006-2011, the late
period of her life, represents a shift toward impenetrable abstraction. Rocks, twine, tar, soot, shells, and other debris
are buried deep in ragged canvas; the treasures she found were hardened into dark, ossified form. This exhibition
also features multiples of her photographic documentation of sublime gardens and beach scenes from the family
cottage in Amertsburg, Canada.
What Pipeline is primarily showing early works, while the exhibition at Trinosophes focuses on Aitken's late work.
Black Abstract has been realized with the help of Aitken's family, and her life-long friend Ed Fraga.
Press release
