Andrew Balkin
Balkin’s “Spatial Construct: Series 1, No. 6” will be on display at Hollis Taggart Galleries.
At first glance, you might guess the works in Andrew Balkin’s Spatial Construct show are computer-generated or machine-made: They feature stark lines and baroque, geometric patterns.
But this arresting collection of drawings, ranging from sparse pieces done in graphite to full-color “construction-collages” (work composed of multiple drawings layered on top of one another), is the product of years of meticulous work created by an expert hand. Spatial Construct, Balkin’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York, opens at the internationally recognized Hollis Taggart Galleries in New York City on June 7.
Since the 1970s, Balkin has been lauded as a master printmaker by some of the most singular names in contemporary art. Working in contract printing and publishing, he has produced prints for such notable artists as Bruce Nauman, Gladys Nilsson and Warrington Colescott.
This focus left the Madison-based artist with little time for creating his own work. “During the publishing years, Andy basically sublimated his artistic energies into collaborating and helping other artists produce their best work,” says Renee Balkin, Andrew’s wife.
Following a fire in 2005 at an adjacent business that damaged much of his studio space (located then on Parview Road), the Balkins relocated to a rural site west of Middleton, where they have operated Andrew Balkin Editions since. Once the new studio was up and running, Balkin felt it was finally time to concentrate on his own work.
John McLaughlin
Balkin works in a studio on the outskirts of Middleton.
Nestled among the rolling hills of former farmland, the studio, a small outbuilding on the Balkins’ expansive property, feels removed from nearby Madison. On a recent visit, Balkin — now in his 70s — was working on a nearly completed sketch of a mostly black drawing, with finely detailed patterned lines and pinpoint dots of color.
Etchings by world-famous artists that Balkin has worked with are framed on the walls above his workspace, which is stocked with printmaking equipment and supplies. Many of the pieces completed in the last several years are being packed for shipment to the gallery in New York, and Balkin is still making last-minute decisions about exactly what to send.
One of the exhibition’s completed pieces, “Spatial Construct: Series 1, No. 6,” is spread out beside other work on a massive drawing board. Like much of the artist’s work since 2010, it is a conceptual geometrical drawing that is quiet, yet explosive.
“There’s no real narrative in these; it was just pure creating,” says Balkin. “My primary concern was creating space.”
For Balkin, space refers to the suggestion of depth and mass crafted through careful manipulations of shade, surface and line. Spaces open, shift and collapse in upon themselves.
Half a lifetime ago, Andrew Balkin studied philosophy at UW-Madison, earning a bachelor’s degree in the field. “I had built it into my mindset at a young age,” he says. “I studied it closely through the ages of 18-21. I was immersed in pure thought.”
And while he credits many thinkers as inspiration for his art, including the Existentialists and German Idealists, it’s just as much the careful, contemplative nature of philosophy itself that infuses much of the stark, yet complex pieces in the Spatial Construct series.
“It’s like Picasso said: ‘It’s there, find it,’” says Balkin. “Something is there, and you have to work to uncover it.”
Editor's note: This article was corrected to change the term "prints" to "drawings" in two places.
