February 11 - March 25, 2006

Nicole Phungrasamee Fein

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 16, 2006

NICOLE PHUNGRASAMEE FEIN AT GALLERY JOE

Philadelphia, PA – Gallery Joe is pleased to present the first solo show in Philadelphia by Nicole Phungrasamee Fein. The exhibition opens in the Front Gallery on Saturday, February 11 and continues through March 25, 2006.

Fein will show 15 drawings on paper in the exhibition. All of the works are 14 x 14 inches in the medium of watercolor. Though the format is the same, these works are a departure from Fein’s earlier works composed using only one or two colors. Of the new work Fein states:

For each of my monochromatic drawings, I pursued the perfect color. Endlessly mixing to find “the one.”

I now recognize each color as the right one for that moment. I still use a single pool of colored water for each drawing. The lines come from slowly pulling water across the paper. For each passage, I alter the color of water by adding pigment or more water. Every alteration yields a different color, but derives from the color before it. I use each color only once. I cannot replicate a color. The outcome is unexpected.

The slow repetition of single gestures drives the work. Observing the tension of quiet movement through time, witnessing the steadfastness of natural growth cycles, retaining the focus necessary for attention to individual lines amid an emerging field of lines, and feeling the rhythms of my cumulative process, I wonder at the subjective perception of time. My repeated gestures make for an ever-changing whole – a field that draws me into an experience that is both static and dynamic, where, in time, time is irrelevant.

                     – Nicole Phungrasamee Fein, 2006

Fein was awarded her MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA, BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and BA from Tufts University, Medford, MA. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, The Legion of Honor in San Francisco among others. In San Francisco she shows with Hosfelt Gallery. At Gallery Joe Fein has participated in several group shows including A Short Show in 2004 and Water color, 2005

An exhibition of new drawings by Nicole Phungrasamee Fein opens on Saturday, February 11 and runs through Saturday, March 25, 2006. The artist will be present at a reception on Saturday, February 11 from 4 - 6 P.M. This show runs simultaneously with Suites and Pages by Charles Ritchie in the Vault gallery. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12 - 5:30, other days by appointment. For additional information contact Becky Kerlin, 215.592.7752, FAX 215.238.6923, mail@galleryjoe.com or www.galleryjoe.com