Ned Vena (B. 1982)

With its interlocking pattern of black and white lines, Ned Vena’s triptych Untitled, 2011, combines precise draughtsmanship with optical pyrotechnics. Three shiny aluminium panels are overlaid with complex vinyl ridges, creating a hypnotic series of geometric undulations. With its near-sculptural physical form, Untitled engages the audience in a mesmerising visual dialogue: the vinyl peaks are activated through the sweep of the viewer’s eye, introducing a kinetic dimension that interrupts the composition’s stasis. In this sense, Untitled induces a heightened awareness of our own physical presence in the exhibition space, highlighting the subtle shifts and movements that occur within our vision. Vena’s decision to use industrial materials questions the status of the work of art, highlighting its manufactured nature as well as its commodity-like reproducibility. The artist not only blurs the borders between art and the everyday, but also, referencing Minimalism and Frank Stella in particular, the traditional division between painting and sculpture. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1982, Vena currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He had solo shows at Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin, at Clifton Benevento, New York, and at Societe, Berlin, and between 2014 and 2015 participated in the group exhibition Beware Wet Paint, travelling between the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Fondazione Sandretto