OTHER PERSPECTIVES ON SALLY HAVLIS’S ARTWORK
“Sally Havlis’s works transform imperfection and awkwardness into startling beauty consisting of folds, shadows, and a myriad of subtle and fleeting moments that continue to occur as one looks at them from various angles. The pieces delight the eye, subverting geometric pattern and form into something a bit more off-kilter, but fascinating. It’s impossible to take them in at a glance — there’s so much going on. The “macho” manipulation of large sheets of acrylic paint necessary to make the pieces is undercut by her references to domesticity (pillows, the soft folds of women’s clothes) that deliver a sly, transgressive wink to male-dominated Modernism.”
Writer and Artist
“A personal insistence for quality and significance in art is the motivational push for Sally Havlis. The demands and challenges required to accomplish art-making on this elevated level she willingly accepts. Her studio practice entails a persistent commitment to reach a personal proficiency, to satisfy her self-imposed standards by always recognizing what works and what doesn't, when close isn't good enough and when honest accomplishment might be in the wrong direction. Totally committed to producing works of authentic aesthetic expression, over the years she has succeeded in generating a variety of forceful paintings, drawings, and autonomous objects. Her focus is formalistic, developing art by transforming numerous materials into arresting creations exhibiting new visual relationships and effects. Recently she has created a striking series of dimensional pieces made principally from paint. Some of the works have unintentional resemblances to items like stuffed cushions and women's skirts. Unintended, because her interests consist mainly in the undefined and suggestive power of communication, not representation and symbolism. Havlis' stunning non-objective constructions can only be visually scrutinized and contemplated, not identified.
Her processes are inventive and complicated, privately hidden behind the beautiful consistently patterned sheets of paint she makes. Their smoothness is visually enigmatic considering the intricate interplay of shapes and color they display, illusionary surface activity often appearing as interwoven fabric. These carefully prepared membranes of paint she employs to construct sculptural objects by draping and folding the dried acrylic medium into her desired configurations. Sometimes foundations are employed to insure the subtle surface reliefs she requires.
Her more recent works are upbeat, even bordering on the festive, but tempered in some way like the modesty of a slightly deflated balloon. Their gutsy looks range from the reserve and reductive quiet of minimalism to the post-modern glitz of exaggerated pop. Her shinny, monochromatic, thick wall sheets and seemingly soft bulbous, iridescent objects with glowing erratic dots impose themselves with force and humor. They carefully offer a calm, risky balance, a surprising combination of dynamic flash and refined elegance.”
Staff Lecturer, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.