Lower East Side galleries: In a neighborhood not known for its art, two exhibitions shine through

Bored of the standard Chelsea galleries? Take a trip down to the Lower East Side for two small, but intriguing, exhibitions that recently opened­—JJ PEET’s “Shadow” and Julia Goldman’s “Swimmers.”

“Shadow” is JJ PEET’s second solo exhibition at On Stellar Rays, an unassuming yet distinctive gallery located on 133 Orchard Street between Delancey and Rivington streets. PEET’s paintings feature unique paints that are crafted from collected minerals and crushed ceramics and later mixed with pigments. These special paints allow for texture variation and lay the basis for PEET to create stories linked to meanings literally embedded within the paintings themselves. Over the past decade, PEET has linked the tangible world and its events with contemporary social issues through his art, transforming his experiences and his environment into paintings in this innovative manner.

The paintings featured in “Shadow” are emphatically abstract, but simultaneously empowered by the strong emotions conveyed by PEET. Varying hues of gray and neutral tan shades lose their monotonous character juxtaposed against stark contrasts of light and dark shadows created by objects pictured in the paintings. Lipstick red hues and hot pinks draw attention from not only their unique hues, but also their textures. Subtle details of thicker paint raised slightly above the rest of the canvass generate geometric shapes that barely assert themselves, creating tension between the painting’s subliminal doubt and inquiry. Perhaps one can attribute this hesitance to PEET’s tendency to address political issues through his artwork.

“Swimmers” is currently open at Museum 52, located in an apartment building at 4 E. 2nd St. between Bowery and Second Avenue. Also narrow and diminutive, the Museum 52 gallery feels somewhat more open than On Stellar Rays with its higher ceilings, but remains intimate enough for close viewing of the works on display.

Goldman explained the eight-piece exhibition “Swimmers” by saying that, “after completing a painting of a swimmer, I used it to make another. I traced the figure and placed it on a new canvas in a different position. Miraculously, it worked. She was still swimming. The human figure, the most sensitive and legible subject, somehow became flexible.”

The fluidity between the paintings is evident through Goldman’s distinct manipulation of brush strokes to create a sense of movement that flows from one painting to the next. Soothing hues of yellows and blues intensify and fade within each painting with varied strokes indicative of submersion in water, capturing a calm yet simultaneously shifting environment. Strong silhouettes of swimmers can easily be distinguished, yet a play on shadows and light leave room for abstraction to merge with representation of these silhouettes. As Goldman said, she tries to rely on flexibility “without preconceived narratives or much respect for my imagination ... to initiate pictures.”