JULIA VON EICHEL

Each line sprouts from her fingertip which she conducts not unlike a paintbrush. The oil lends its swift chemistry to energetic marks in a bold palette. A rhythmic order—even a corporal mathematic—commands each juxtaposition which is sometimes reticent and other times, brazen. “I like to work with materials that will have a resistance and a life of their own,” the artist says.

The paintings breathe von Eichel’s every touch—subtle pats or determined jabs— each attempt yields a chromatic drop within a sea of kaleidoscopic splendor. The light cuts through the shadows to shine through the crannies marked by the artist’s only tool, her fingers. Windows or wells, each painting carves out a volcanic promise, a quest to expand the limits of what a painting or sculpture might be. A sculptor for decades, she dabbles with the definitions of both practices and alchemizes them on two dimensions yet under the influence of the third. “I use my hand in the same way a sculptor does,” the artist says. The immediacy conveys an awareness, an all-encompassing unity with the flatness of the graphite.

After three decades in the city, a new life in Upstate New York casts its colors and habits onto the artist’s process. A studio with eight windows brings in vistas of the commanding Stissing Mountain and unparalleled sunsets. In the garden, a plethora of flora—think wisteria, Russian sage, and hydrangea—grow, gushing chromatic fascinations onto the drafting table. From the nocturnal azure to the fiery dawn, the day’s journey inhabits the paintings; however, a non-linear appreciation of time and seasons carves out a kinetic landscape. Circularities and twisters occupy generous territories, claiming, gently, lands of mercurial foundations. Charged with a chromatic electricity, each painting contains a rhythm of mystery, only solvable through each onlooker’s curiosity. Kinetic for some and serene for others, they simultaneously hum and roar, deafeningly loud for a second only to be followed by an utter silence. The motifs contain a harmonious vitality that is reminiscent of the subtle sways of a breathing body or the barely recognizable waves on placid water. They demand attention, yet they do so through a humble spring vigour in which opulence comes off as generosity.

Explosive yet contained, the lush hues bubble and swirl on the graphite’s hospitable and tactile nature. von Eichel flirts with colors—the enigmatic Paynes’ Gray or the inviting magenta—with a whimsical appetite for the outcome. Like a conductor, however, she delivers gestures of awareness in which caution and embrace coalesce. “Fathom” grasps this duality. A confirmation of understanding, the word embodies a further fascination with knowledge, a deeper plunge into the genes of a discovery. To fathom is to understand, only wetter and more devoted. Fathoming the show’s paintings is an adventurous feat: while calmness and tumult are inseparable, each mark radiates an uncharted decision awaiting comprehension. von Eichel prompts us to seep into the depths of each composition where, deep down, lies a wealth of unraveling.

Her landscapes exist within the confines of squares and rectangles, but from within these regimented geometries she expands deep and wide with a fluidity that veils each graphite surface. The chord between the fingertips and the mind remains within the rigid borders, but in every frame, there is always a trust in a broader horizon.

Now is timely to recall the other meaning of “fathom”, which is a measurement of length that is around six feet, commonly used for assessing the depth of a mass of water. The unity in the word’s two connotations is a search through mystery, and in addition to a desire to fully penetrate the truth, they equally cherish the unknown’s ineffable charm. von Eichel commits to a similar journey of gauging places in which colors and her own corporality guide her through. In discovery of their beautifully unpredictable accordance, she unravels all that the tangible and the ethereal have in common, not unlike grasping a meaning and appreciating how unfathomable it may be.Osman Can Yerebakan