The Small Things In Between
Kim Sweet
USC/Roski MFA Thesis Exhibition
May 5th - May 13th 2023
It is pretty to think so…
2022
oil on canvas on cinder blocks
56 x 60 in.
acquired
You Think You Know
2022
oil, metallic gold and tape on canvas
69 x 118 in.
acquired
Yet To Be Named
2023
oil and tape on linen
96 x 69 in.
price upon request
The Broken Places
2023
oil, tape and wax pencil on canvas
84 x 90 in.
acquired
The Promise
2023
oil on canvas
68 x 114 in.
acquired
Forgotten Things ( or Above the Fog )
2023
oil and tape on canvas
68 x 102 in.
acquired
The Small Things In Between
2023
oil and tape on canvas
89 x 132 in.
Price upon request
Essays
Nadia Estrada
In The Small Things In Between, artist Kim Sweet invites her audience to contemplate their place in the world and meditate on the echoes of once vibrant memories lost to time. The artist utilizes the landscape as a point of departure to venture beyond her physical setting and delve into the layers of nostalgia embedded within it. Through her time spent on the road between Los Angeles and Phoenix over the last two years, Sweet draws upon the notion that a landscape is not a fixed representation of nature but a constructed reflection of the viewer's inner and outer reality. Sweet's paintings serve as a visual embodiment of the intangible and ephemeral nature of memory, just within reach yet ever elusive. On the canvas, she distills the emotional core of a fleeting moment and creates an atmospheric yet nuanced mood with a muted and almost monochromatic color palette. By juxtaposing the rigid structure of the grid with the organic forms of nature, Sweet blurs the lines between order and familiarity. The large-scale works pull the viewer into the scene, allowing them to experience the innermost essence of a place alongside the artist. In her mastery of the medium, Sweet gracefully portrays the landscape not merely as an earthly setting but as a repository of emotions, narratives, and memories, beckoning us to explore the depths of our own recollections.
Adrianne Ramsey
April 23, 2023
WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Camus
This current decade has been filled with moments of collapse, transformation, and seismic shifts, but more importantly, it has been a time of contemplation. The past couple of years have demanded an ongoing inquiry into discovery – how it can be used as a tool, a weapon, or a vessel, and how it shape-shifts and recircuits how we view ourselves. There are so many elements to life that felt fixed, but in the wake of the global health pandemic and widespread civil unrest, we quickly realized that what we thought was “safe” is actually entirely changeable. One minute we were living in a world that thrived off of constant movement, possibly to the point of everything feeling blurred as we churned along – only for the next minute to be sitting in silence. The early days of the state-manded lockdowns felt still and empty, and once bustling cities were suddenly ghost towns. How do we find ourselves when isolation is now the core of our lives?
The aforementioned questions are ones that artist Kim Sweet explores in her solo exhibition, The Small Things In Between. The crux of the exhibited paintings is to search for understanding and our place in the world; the color palette of the works is muted, but the feelings they exude are transcendent. You Think You Know and The Broken Places, both made in 2022, feature empty roads and a sprawling landscape. Where are these mysterious spaces, and what do they mean to us? Or maybe the more important question is – where do they lead us? There is an element of loneliness to these two paintings, but also an opportunity to ponder our place within them. When one enters a space, there are certain rules and expectations, but when we are alone in an open space such as an outdoor landscape, we have a rare opportunity to make our own rules. Maybe one could walk down these roads until they found signs of human life, or maybe they would find their way home, wherever or whatever home is for them. As a society, we always think that we can hack something that is an obstacle or that we will ultimately find a way to make something work – when in reality, sometimes we reach a road that confronts us with our own mortality. Does there have to be a requirement or a delimitation when we enter a space? I can see myself traversing down this path, contemplating where I am going, and where have I been, thus reversing the preconceived notion of space as a physical being and instead focusing on my internal journey. While traveling amongst empty spaces, sometimes the real test is figuring out where we are going next. This pondering notion and the quietness of space is what both of these hypnotic paintings exude. There is a deeper meaning to finding oneself by removing all the noise, as silence is actually very loud. In addition, both paintings utilize the Cartesian grid. According to the artist, “The grid is a way for me to connect with a system of thinking that maps a series of coordinates. It is a stand in for our ability to be aware of ourselves.” In this instance, the usage of grids should be not viewed as a barrier between the viewer and the painting, but instead an opportunity to explore human consciousness and how connected we can be to a specific space. How do we map out our own sense of clarity within a desolate arena? Are we still able to find our destination when we don’t have the directions?
Sweet’s painting The Small Things In Between (2023) takes place in the dead of night. This huge work explores the color black and how it can be used as a metaphor, as black is a paradox outside of being a metaphor. The black paint that Sweet uses is very slick, reflective, and simply elegant, although one might have to squint to see what they’re looking at. There is a sprinkling of stars across the night sky, a small sliver of light, and what appears to be the outlining of a mountaintop. In connecting this to the earlier text about contemplation, does it matter at what point in the day you’re trying to connect with oneself? Some people do their best thinking at night, or when the sun is setting, or when it’s grey outside. Regardless, there is something strangely intimate about finding – or, the alternative, losing – yourself within the darkness. The works that make up The Small Things In Between show that embedded within the volatility of uncertainty, fear, and change can also be the decadence of hope.