Location: The Solarium at The Colony Hotel, 155 Hammon Ave, Palm Beach, FL33480
Contact: caroline@voltzclarke.com | 917.292.6921

Press Release

The Colony HOTEL and Voltz Clarke Gallery are pleased to present IN THE PINK, a group exhibition.

Love and violence, seduction and innocence, finery and garishness, the masculine and the feminine; the color pink has always represented fascinating contradictions. The color's turbulent history is ushered into the present-day meaning according to Oxford Languages ‘in very good health and spirits’ at The Solarium at The Colony through a selection of works by Christina Burch, Field Kallop, Lucy Soni, Khalilah Birdsong, and Jason Trotter. The selected paintings for IN THE PINK invite viewers this season to experience pink in all its dimensions; from soft, subtle hues to bold, vibrant statements. Abstract geometries engage with familiar florals and flesh tones, showcasing pink's dynamic role in representation. Field Kallop’s sharp forms in shades of dusty rose and coral juxtapose the brilliantly deep magenta peonies in Christina Burch's canvases. Set against the backdrop of Palm Beach's pastel sunsets and plastic flamingos, the Colony Hotel provides the perfect address for this vibrant exhibition.

The Colony Palm Beach | Voltz Clarke Gallery Collaboration invites hotel guests, visitors, and locals alike to explore a rotating selection of fine art at the iconic property steps from Worth Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean. As guardians of a treasured icon, The Colony Palm Beach faithfully preserves its legacy of gracious hospitality while ensuring continued relevance to a new generation of modern, well-traveled and discerning guests. The 93 room property offers unique, curated experiences for guests of all ages delivered with best-in-class ultra boutique service. Much more than a hotel, The Colony is a state of mind – a place to connect meaningfully and authentically with one of the world’s most storied destinations, steps from both Worth Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean. Aware of The Colony’s singular place in the hearts of long-time Palm Beachers, the hotel is dedicated to maintaining a rich tradition of culinary excellence and sophisticated entertainment in a vibrant social setting that is both welcoming and refreshingly unpretentious.

Selected Works

Intersect Aspen 2021

Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to exhibit in  Intersect Aspen with Khalilah Birdsong and Natasha Law.

Opening Reception: August 1 – 5, 2021
Gallery Location: Aspen Ice Garden | 233 West Hyman Avenue, Aspen, CO 81611
Show Dates: VIP Preview Brunch | Sunday, August 1, 2021 10:00 am – 11:00 am
– Public Opening Reception | Sunday, August 1, 2021 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
– General Admission | August 1 – 5, 2021, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm daily
– Khalilah Birdsong Artist Talk | August 2, 2021, 12:00 pm 
Contact Info: Juliette@voltzclarke.com, 917.292.6921, voltzclarke.com

Khalilah Birdsong’s abstract color studies act as a playful partner to Natasha Law’s more reserved abstracted female nudes. Birdsong’s layered works, constructed through the building up and removing of paint tell histories of forgotten colors as paint is added and stripped from the surface. In a contrastingly delicate process, Law uses high-gloss paints to depict the fleeting moments of the everyday woman using abstract shapes made of large and lustrous color fields. The artists use the abstract in contrasting ways; one to depict an almost sculptural visual chronology of colors through the tactical and arduous process of painting, and the other to highlight the delicate strength of women in the ephemeral moments of each passing day. 

Intersect Fairs

Intersect Aspen is an annual art and culture event in the heart of one of the nation’s most prestigious collector communities. Formerly known as Art Aspen, it has been running since 2010.

Khalilah Birdsong (b. 1977, Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, USA) is a visual artist who creates large-scale abstract paintings and installations. Khalilah lived in the rainforest of Maui, Hawaii from 2017-2019, where she painted fervently in nature and discovered a new meaning of life that translates throughout her artwork.  Birdsong currently resides in the mountains of North Georgia, USA. In the fall of 2021, Khalilah will be moving to England to begin her matriculation at Goldsmiths, University of London to pursue her Masters of Fine Art. Birdsong has exhibited with galleries in Atlanta, Georgia, Cincinnati, Ohio, New York, New York, Japan, Italy and Hamburg, Germany. Birdsong’s work can be found in President Barack Obama’s private collection, and is being considered to hang in his Presidential Library. Birdsong participated in the XIIth Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy exhibiting four large-scale paintings and installation work in the fall of 2019.  Natasha Law (b. 1970) is a United Kingdom native who continues to live and work in London since graduating from Camberwell College of the Arts. Law has been represented by Voltz Clarke for over a decade starting with her first solo show Stills at Diane Von Furstenberg in New York City, along with other shows in New York, Hong Kong, and London. She has exhibited internationally and is in a number of well-known private collections. 

Opening Reception: April 8th, 5-8pm 2021

Gallery Location: 195 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002

Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am–6 pm, Saturday and Sunday by appointment

Contact Info: Juliette@voltzclarke.com, 917.292.6921, voltzclarke.com

Voltz Clarke Gallery is thrilled to introduce the work of KHALILAH BIRDSONG with a two-person exhibition RESURGENCE alongside gallery artist, JASON TROTTER. 

Khalilah Birdsong’s gestural and organic overlapping fields of color are not only playful and effervescent but serious and thought-provoking while Jason Trotter’s razor sharp lines are precise with an overall flat and minimalist surface.

Resurgence: an increase or revival after a period of little activity, popularity, or occurrence.

“I am interested in survival and resurgence. Distress, weathering is palpable on the canvas, but so is reawakening. I build layers up and then take them away to create a painting that is, ultimately, whole. The process of layering and stripping builds contusions, bumps and raw ridges, but also reveals patches of older, more forgotten colors. Every painting is an experience through process, which translates to the canvas to create a story that can only be experienced visually.

My process is strenuous to the medium. Through it, my paintings achieve resolution.” –Khalilah Birdsong

Khalilah Birdsong has participated in solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy. Her paintings are held in numerous private and corporate collections, including that of President Barack Obama and are under consideration to hang in his Presidential Library. Birdsong’s paintings bring to mind the work of Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jack Whitten and of, course, Gerhard Richter. However, whereas they were tied to references to nature and their style looser and freer, her work combines physicality with a precision and finely calibrated balance.

Named, in 2019, by Contemporary Art Curator Magazine in London as one of the “ 100 Future Contemporary Artists in the World”, Birdsong has won numerous accolades. In the fall of 2019 she participated in the XIIth Florence Biennale and received a Hambidge Fellowship for the Creative Arts & Sciences in 2020.

Birdsong lived in the rainforest of Maui, Hawaii from 2017-2019 where she painted fervently in nature and discovered a new meaning of life that is evident through her work. She currently lives and works in the mountains of North Georgia.

A Voltz Clarke gallery artist since 2019, Jason Trotter is pleased to share the Lower East Side gallery space with Birdsong. Trotter is an American artist known for his bold geometric abstracts rendered in acrylics. The Los Angeles based painter explores contrast and balance using a hard-edge technique that produces sharp lines with abrupt transitions between color fields. His process requires him to work on a flat surface to tape off shapes, and then build up multiple layers of paint with a brush before applying the final coat with a palette knife for ample texture. While Trotter’s colors are chosen intuitively, his compositions are inspired by lines and forms observed in daily life with the intention of evoking an instinctual, physical reaction from observers rather than interpretive analysis.

In Trotter’s second exhibition with Voltz Clarke, he is focusing on triptychs that are assembled and framed as one piece. This multi-panel approach allows for a more dynamic effect than the traditional compilation. The correlation from panel to panel allows simple shapes to unite, resulting in non-representational compositions that make a singular, eye-catching statement. Jason Trotter’s work is intended to evoke an instinctual, physical reaction or feeling that uplifts. From social media to 24-hour news cycles, we are all enveloped in a constant bombardment of thoughts, ideas, opinions, and information that mostly add anxiety to our already stressful lives. Rather than perpetuate this, his paintings offer an escape by emphasizing his compelling compositions.

Jason Trotter is a graduate of Northern Illinois University who lives and works in California. Drawn to minimal abstraction, his work is strongly influenced by Carmen Herrera, Ellsworth Kelly, Josef Albers, and Frank Stella.