Constance DeJong

scale
June 30 – August 8

A minimalist art gallery with white walls displaying two framed artworks; the closest artwork features a simple dark square on a white background.
A bright, spacious gallery with large windows, featuring various artwork on the walls and chairs scattered throughout the room.
An art gallery interior with three small, framed black rectangles centered on a clean, off-white wall, illuminated by soft overhead lighting.
Two small square paintings or photos, each centered in a white frame, hang on a warmly lit neutral wall in a gallery, with a subtle shadow cast on the carpeted floor.
A minimalist gallery with four monochromatic square artworks in simple frames mounted on adjacent white walls. The gallery has soft lighting focusing on the pieces, and the floor is carpeted in a neutral color.
Minimalist art gallery interior with a framed artwork on the left, and the words "Constance DeJong" and "Scale" projected in light on two adjoining walls. A bench is partially visible in the foreground.
This image depicts a minimalist abstract artwork featuring two dark panels separated by a thin vertical copper strip, mounted on a white gallery wall above a grey carpet.
A contemporary art gallery setting with a glass table holding refreshments: a bowl of fruit, flowers, nuts, and crackers. Artworks hang on the walls in a spacious room with soft lighting.
People mingling in an art gallery featuring Constance DeJong's artwork on the walls, flowers and refreshments on tables, in a warmly lit, spacious room.
Four adults engaged in a conversation at an art gallery. Two women talking closely, one in a striped shirt. A man in a denim jacket talking to an older man in a gray shirt. Contemporary art in the background.
Four adults engaging in a conversation inside an art gallery, with large contemporary art pieces in the background and soft lighting illuminating the space.
Three senior adults, two women and one man, engage in conversation in an art gallery while viewing contemporary art on a wall.
An elderly man stands smiling, engaged in conversation with a woman in a gallery featuring contemporary art, surrounded by other attendees in casual and semi-formal attire.
A group of adults in casual attire observe framed artworks by Constance DeJong on the walls of a well-lit gallery, with some discussing the pieces and others contemplating silently.
An elderly couple closely examining a minimalist black artwork by Constance DeJong in a white frame at an art gallery.
A group of diverse people, including adults of various ages, standing and conversing in an art gallery surrounded by framed artworks on plain walls, featuring pieces by Constance DeJong.
People viewing large contemporary art paintings at an art gallery exhibition.
A group of people of various ages gathered in an art gallery, viewing and discussing contemporary art displayed on white walls, in a well-lit space.
Diverse group of people observing and discussing artwork by artist Constance DeJong at a gallery opening. Some attendees are standing and talking, while others examine the paintings.
Visitors gather in an art gallery with white walls, viewing and discussing contemporary artworks. A table with refreshings sits in the foreground. Bright, spacious room setting.

Press Release

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Scale, a selection of new works by New Mexico artist Constance DeJong. Based in mathematical precision, this body of work explores the opposite ends of scale and its effect.

Working at the border of sculpture and drawing, Constance DeJong creates an aesthetic of minimalist art that is simultaneously reductive and expressive. Using large sheets of copper fabricated into bold forms, DeJong applies layer upon layer of patina to build up blackened, smoky surfaces. She uses this same process in both large and small scale, to strikingly different effect. The small works are “drawings” that exude a delicate simplicity of form and fissure. The eye is drawn to the copper edged break between what are actually two separate pieces of copper that appear to the eye as one, creating a square from two proportionately relational halves. This break reveals raw copper that glows as one moves in shifting light. The larger version of these drawings, the Four/Three sculpture, floats on the wall conveying the elegance of the drawings in more dramatic terms. These large forms lure viewers in and overwhelm by sheer size. DeJong’s latest drawings in the Four/Three series have eliminated the copper square and replaced half with Mylar, coupling delicately melded copper with the sheer, reflective, transparency of plastic. The combination of metal and plastic, earthen and artificial, reveals an ongoing process in the oeuvre of Constance DeJong.

Educated at the University of New Mexico where she is now a professor, Constance DeJong responds to the scope and scale of New Mexico. A retrospective of her work was held here at the Albuquerque Museum in 2003, to much critical acclaim. Her work is included in several prominent collections including the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY and the Fisher Landau Center for Art in Long Island City, NY.

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Dates: June 13–August 8, 2008
Reception: June 13, 6–8 pm
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 am–4 pm
Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Contact: 505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com, www.levygallery.com @levygallery

Albuquerque Journal Review