California Modern

SLATE contemporary is proud to present, California Modern: Sheldon Greenberg + Maya Kabat. This exhibition features new paintings by SLATE artists Sheldon Greenberg and Maya Kabat. California landscapes and architecture inspire Greenberg and Kabat as their paintings convey colors, light, form and even fleeting impressions we can all encounter in the state.

Maya Kabat’s abstract oil paintings reference the urban landscape of Northern California, exploring relationships between architectural elements, California light, and the balance of color, line, plane, and space. Inspired originally by Diebenkorn’s work, Kabat often leaves a quiet empty space in the middle of the canvas, giving absence and ground a prioritized position usually reserved for subject and form. Unlike Diebenkorn, however, Kabat focuses intently on the physical surface of her work, mixing colors directly on the canvas to build up the image using drywall and plaster tools.

Sheldon Greenberg’s fascination with the West Coast environment is a result of growing up in the Midwest and later moving to Southern California where he became entranced by its landscape, architecture and light. The ocean, Midcentury architecture, palm trees, film noir and the balance between the natural and the manufactured form, are blended with elements of abstraction in his compositions. By making his work less literal and more abstract, Sheldon’s paintings have begun to represent a moment in time without being specific, a combination of inquiry, and contextual direction allowing the viewer to go in whatever direction they want to go.