Both The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen have performed songs about tumbling dice, mostly in regard to romance. But for artist Kati Vilim, whose work is being featured by the Majestic Gallery for the next four months, dice play an even more pivotal role in the creative process.
For one of her paintings on display, titled 3D2D, she used a pair of dice to help her decide on the color pattern.
“I had six colored paints and a die has six sides,” she said, during the opening of the show on July 8.
So she just rolled the dice.
Vilim’s work is hardly accidental. These are images that play with space and relationships, often creating small surprises that a viewer might not catch on first glance.
The seven works on display range from studies in limited color palettes such as “Greys,” while others like “36 Squares” play with primary colors.
What is most surprising in these works is a sense of moment, in what would otherwise seem to be immovable objects.
An abstract artist from the start, Vilim said she started out painting a more fluid kind of abstract art and eventually evolved into a version that is more concrete. All seven works deal with blocks of color or shape that appear to be colliding or in motion in relationship to other shapes in the work.
“I’m very interested in geometry and structure.” – Kati Vilim
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“Triptych 3” of gray and black also plays with this box shape as if looking at a dozen cardboard boxes in various phases of construction, one or more sides always missing, some sides pressed against the sides of other boxes. Each has a three-dimensional aspect and the feeling as if they are floating in space, like boxes floating on a pond bumping into each other from time to time.
Vilim said she explores relationships of shapes and colors, dealing with sharp edges.
“Greys” is the subtlest of those on display. It is a mostly blue and gray painting of two rectangular-shaped boxes framed by a square box, and boxes that connect the two interior rectangular shapes. But you have to look close to see tiny red dashes here and there inside and along the exterior of the panting that seemed to give the whole image movement.
All of these works seem to be moving. From “36 Squares” and “3D2D” to “RGB Cubes” there is just a touch of fluid motion.
Vilim said she is looking for sensory reaction to her paintings.
These paintings, which were created between 2007 and 2012, have prices ranging from $4,000 to $6,000.
A well-established artist
Born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, where she earned her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Fine Arts, Vilim came to the United States on a two-year scholarship and earned another MFA at Montclair State University in 2004.
Her media include traditional oil, printmaking, and even electric light installations and digital animation.
Her works have been on display throughout the United States and Europe in both solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been featured in group exhibition venues like City College of New York and New Jersey City University, as well as numerous shows in Newark, San Francisco, Miami, Budapest, and New York City. She is the winner of the 2002 Barcsay Prize and has work in ongoing collections in Hungary, Brooklyn, Montclair, Newark, New York, and Munich, Germany.
Vilim moved to Jersey City last year.
“I’m very interested in geometry and structure,” she said.
Indeed, some of her works have an erotic edge, often appearing to explore the dynamics of solid objects and their relationship with each other.
“I build up complex relationships,” she said.
But she does not try to explain her work or impose a vision, feeling that it would destroy the integrity of each piece.
She said her approach differs from work to work. Sometimes she starts with a shape, other times a color, and part of the thrill of creation is watching it all come together.
Curated by Brendan Carroll, who first saw her work at an exhibit in Newark. Vilim said he wrote a review of her work at the time, and has since worked with her three times.
A social gathering
The opening drew a number of people associated with the local art scene and some surprising curiosity seekers such as Matt Shapiro.
“I’m not an artist, but I appreciate the arts,” Shapiro said. “I wanted to take a look.”
Even political Jersey City Heights guru Thomas “Sully” Sullivan came to take a look, saying he was curious about the exhibit.
Ward E Councilwoman Candice Osborne, who is known as a strong supporter of local arts, said she came to get a look at the exhibit.
The gallery is at 222 Montgomery St., and is actually the lobby of the Majestic Theater Condominium complex.
Paul Silverman said the lobby is a tribute to the former theater upon which the complex is constructed. A number of top acts performed there. But the theater was closed in the 1950s and by the 1980s the theater was slated to be demolished.
“We were lucky that people in the neighborhood said please don’t tear down the theater,” he said.
The Silverman company took over the site in 2003. It was boarded up, water dripping into it, and the place was vandalized. He said in some cases, only remnants of the original design of the lobby remained, so that his crew had to recreate them in order to rebuild the lobby.
He said when finished, he didn’t know what to do with the walls. He thought to put up art. But a curator as the Jersey City Museum at the time suggested that they use the space as a gallery.
Since then, Silverman has hosted about 50 art shows between this site and another at their building on Hamilton Square. The two sites host shows for four months.
A new art opening takes place every two months at this or the other site.
All artists displayed at these sites have some connection to Jersey City. They live, or work here.
The lobby is locked, but there is an intercom outside that rings the office. The Vilim exhibit will be on view in the lobby until Oct. 31.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.