Mayme Kratz
In The Length of Daylight, Arizona-based artist Mayme Kratz explores the beauty of organic materials found underfoot during long walks in the desert. From these fragile natural remnants, Kratz draws both medium and muse. Within layers of sanded resin, seed pods, sun-washed bones, wisps of grass, and other overlooked debris become illuminated in suspended patterns.
The delicacy of the ethereal is enshrined within the resin, offering a poignant reminder of the cycles that drive nature and human life. By emphasizing the balance between loss and renewal, Kratz encourages an appreciation of the subtle beauty found in transformation. Her shapes and compositions feel both earthly and cosmic, suggesting that the smallest details in nature can mirror the vastness of the stars. The Length of Daylight reveals Kratz’s ability to connect the intimate with the infinite. Her works encourage us to pause, look closer, and see how even the most delicate fragments of the natural world hold stories of wonder and resilience.
Alia Ali
This December, Gilman Contemporary will introduce the work of Alia Ali, an artist with roots in Yemen, Bosnia, and the United States. Ali explores themes of identity, displacement, and migration through photographs that blur the line between portraiture and abstraction. Figures are enveloped in vibrantly patterned cloths that obscure identifying characteristics. Every portrait is presented in a hand-upholstered frame, crafted from the same fabric depicted in the photograph, extending the work beyond its visual borders.
For Ali, fabric is a powerful symbol of acceptance, resistance, and life itself. From the swaddles of infancy to the shrouds of death, textiles accompany us through every stage of existence. In her work, Ali examines the beauty and complexity of cloth and the weight of its meaning. She explores its power to protect and conceal, to define and transform. Each piece encourages viewers to consider how fabric shapes our understanding of identity, culture, and the human experience.
Dana Piazza
Gilman Contemporary will also exhibit the work of Dana Piazza, a Massachusetts-based artist whose practice explores the dynamic tension between order and unpredictability. Piazza’s abstract drawings and paintings created on paper, panel, and canvas, begin from a single origin mark and evolve through a meticulous process of repetition and variation. Guided by self-devised algorithms, he allows for subtle, unintentional deviations that inform the next mark.
This chain reaction guides each work of art toward an unknown outcome, resulting in compelling illusions of depth and movement rendered in a single, richly pigmented color. Through this balance of chaos and control, Piazza investigates themes of chance, discovery, and the passage of time.
Captions:
Vanishing Light 51
by Mayme Kratz
resin cassia on panel
40” x 40”
Red Blossom
by Alia Ali
archival pigment print produced Canson Baryta Photographique Matte Paper in custom-built wooden frame, hand upholstered by artist with muslin and Rajasthani hand-printed cotton using traditional wood block printing methods
63” x 39”
Line 299
by Dana Piazza
pigmented ink on watercolor paper
40” x 30”
661 Sun Valley Road | Ketchum
208.726.7585
gilmancontemporary.com
