Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to participate in ZONA MACO. Visit us in booth C111 to see works by François Bucher, Debbi Kenote, Alois Kronschlaeger, Mark Sengbusch, and Francisco Ugarte. The fair opens with a preview on Wednesday, February 5th, and continues through Sunday, February 9th.
Color, form, space, and movement come to the fore in this group presentation of new paintings, sculptures, and neon works. Using various techniques and strategies, each artist invites viewers to explore shifting perspectives, whether through literal movement around the work or the evocation of motion within the composition itself.
Mark Sengbusch’s sculptures are a playful synthesis of Brutalist architecture, handmade toys, and Japanese wood joinery. Assembled without glue or hardware, his works fit together like intricate puzzles. Crayola consists of painted plywood pieces that combine to form a vibrant, futuristic structure radiating whimsical energy. Sengbusch’s palette, inspired by sources as diverse as faded vinyl records, ’70s videogames, and graffiti, is a kaleidoscope of neons, jewel tones, and warm hues.
Debbi Kenote’s shaped canvases are similarly inspired by nostalgia, childhood memories, and American craft traditions. She handcrafts her stretchers, transforming the conventional rectangular canvas into complex forms. Her designs draw from the geometry of quilts, the patterns of weaving, and the structure of Bauhaus architecture, while her palette captures shades observed in the natural world. This process challenges and redefines the boundaries of painting, emphasizing the canvas’s objecthood.
In contrast, Francisco Ugarte’s Fragmentos series distills the essence of painting to its most minimal gestures. Beginning with seemingly random brushstrokes, Ugarte identifies compelling fragments that he enlarges into meticulously detailed canvases. These works function as abstract meditations on the act of painting, emphasizing intuition over premeditation and highlighting the beauty of spontaneous gesture.
François Bucher’s Floating Signifier, Grounded Signifier explores the theoretical dimensions of space and reality. This abstract metal sculpture is positioned beside a copy of Despite Straight Lines, a book authored by another François Bucher (1927-1999), analyzing German artist Josef Alber’s poetry and graphic constructions. The sculpture casts a shadow that replicates a 1940 Albers drawing titled Study for Tenayuca, which references studies of pre-Hispanic geometry and Bauhaus ideals. By reproducing Albers’ drawing without touching a pencil, Bucher highlights the interconnectedness of different realities and histories, exploring interdimensional consciousness as a means of broadening perception and the possibilities for coincidence.
Alois Kronschlaeger’s vibrant abstract grid paintings from his Color Field series further extend the discourse on color and space. Influenced by artists and color theorists such as Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto, Kronschlaeger employs interference inks and custom-mixed paints applied with precision using eyedroppers. The resulting compositions feature countless hues, blurred lines, and areas of blank canvas, as the interference inks disrupt the surface to create dynamic, ever-changing visual experiences.
Presented together, these artists challenge the traditional definitions of painting and sculpture. Their diverse practices highlight the enduring relevance of formal experimentation while forging paths that resonate with contemporary audiences.
François Bucher (b. 1972, Cali, Colombia) is an artist and writer. His research spans a wide range of interests, focusing—as of late—on multi-dimensional fields and on other tropes from shamanism and science fiction, such as time “travel.” He contends that trauma acts as a portal through time, both at a collective and an individual level. Bucher’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Venice Biennale, Lyon Biennial, Marrakech Biennale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Bienal de Cartagena, Bienal de Cuenca, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneve, Berlin Documentary Film Forum, Jeu de Paume, Prague Biennial, Tate Britain, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. His writing has been published in the Journal of Visual Culture, documenta Magazine, e-flux journal, and Valdez. He holds a master’s degree in film from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Catastrophe of the Present, a book on his work from 1999 to 2016 written by Claudia Salamanca, was published in 2016. His studio is in Mexico.
Debbi Kenote (b. 1991, Anacortes, WA) is an abstract painter who works in shapes and takes inspiration from puzzles, the history of quilting, and the Bauhaus movement. The artist has exhibited at galleries internationally, including shows at Cristin Tierney Gallery, My Pet Ram, Kate Werble, and Marvin Gardens in New York; Duran|Mashaal Gallery in Montreal; Cob Gallery in London; and Fir Gallery in Beijing. She received her BFA in Painting from Western Washington University and her MFA in Sculpture from Brooklyn College. Kenote has been published through Liquitex, Maake Magazine, Elle Magazine, Innovate Grant, Suboart, The Hopper Prize, Art of Choice, and Hyperallergic. Her work has been placed in several collections, including the OZ Art Collection and the Capital One Corporate Collection. She has been an artist in residence at the Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Saltonstall Foundation, PLOP, Nes Artist Residency, and the Mineral School. In 2022, she was a finalist for the Innovate Grant, and in 2021, she was shortlisted for the Hopper Prize. Kenote has a studio in Brooklyn, NY.
Alois Kronschlaeger’s (b. 1966, Grieskirchen, Austria) work exists at the intersection of art, architecture, and design. The artist is best known for his site-specific installations and sculptures, which demonstrate a preoccupation with environment and light and an interest in exploring time and space via geometry. He has exhibited at international institutions and festivals, such as The Figge Art Museum, The Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences, Yuan Art Museum, MAC Lima, Islamic Arts Festival, and MOCA Tucson, where he constructed a 10,000 square-foot installation of a “mountain range” inside the museum’s Great Hall. He has produced site-specific public installations with the art space SiTE:LAB, including Spire, which stretched over three stories tall; Hybrid Structures, a series of ramps that connected various abandoned buildings on a deconsecrated Catholic church campus in Grand Rapids; and most recently two projects in Lima, Peru. Kronschlaeger works in Brooklyn, NY, and Mexico City.
Mark Sengbusch’s (b. 1979, Ravenna, OH) work is inspired by simple toys, Japanese wood joinery, the arts and crafts movement, and brutalist architecture. He describes the sensibility of his work as “Pop meets Folk.” His recent shows include a group exhibition at The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, OR, a two-person show at Cristin Tierney Gallery, and a solo exhibition at Marvin Gardens Annex in Ridgewood, NY. He received his MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2008. He has participated in residencies at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony and Vermont Studio Center. He has exhibited with Bushwick’s Transmitter Gallery, Ortega y Gasset Projects in Gowanus, Real Tinsel Gallery in Milwaukee, David Klein Gallery in Detroit, and Hilde in Los Angeles. Sengbusch lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Francisco Ugarte (b. 1973, Guadalajara, Mexico) is an architect and artist. His multidisciplinary, abstract, and minimalist work can be understood as a series of material and architectural explorations at the intersection of experience and perception. Using different media such as site-specific interventions, sculpture, drawing, painting, video, and installation, his subtle gestures invite deep attention to the environment and highlight the materiality of the elements he uses. Presence, perception, action, intuition, light, time, change, place, the material, and the universal are recurring themes in his work. Ugarte has had solo exhibitions at Cristin Tierney Gallery, Museo Cabañas, Galería Curro, Post Box Gallery, the Clemente Orozco Museum, and the Experimental Museum El Eco. Select group exhibitions include the Raúl Anguiano Museum of Art, Museo Jumex, Salón ACME, and Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City. His work is held in the Charpenel Collection, Jorge M. Perez Art Collection, and Colección Jumex. Ugarte’s studio is in Guadalajara.
Founded in 2010, Cristin Tierney Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located on The Bowery with a deep commitment to the presentation, development, and support of a roster of both established and emerging artists. Its program emphasizes artists engaged with critical theory and art history, with an emphasis on conceptual, video, and performance art. Education and audience engagement is central to our mission. Cristin Tierney Gallery is a member of the ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America).