Municipal Bonds is pleased to announce ODYSSEY, an exhibition of works by Solange Roberdeau, Sarah Koik, and Danielle Dimston. This trio show presents drawings on paper and ceramic sculptures in a narrative informed in part by themes from Homer’s epic poem. By placing the works in dialogue with an ancient text, together they share a conceptual inquiry into the continuity of existence, its meter and rhythm.
Comprising shapes and symbols, depictions of environments and otherworldly forms, ODYSSEY features references to both the natural and mythical worlds, the known and mysterious. Selected works explore “the journey” as an abstract concept, tethered to transformation and its inherent complex forces. The precarious nature of wandering is seen in elements of energetic marks and geometric linework, moody colors and atmospheric textures. Each artist investigates balance and tension—push, pull, connect, expand—between material and surface, flow and pattern.
Weather and the cosmos move through Northern California-native Solange Roberdeau’s new abstract drawings, informed by the cadences of place and the character of materials—including sumi ink, spray paint, oxidized metal leaf—and a dramatic palette of color. She “seeks to highlight a sense of movement and atmosphere, of becoming and un-becoming at once.” An homage to the journey, Roberdeau’s compositions emerge generatively from a conscious balancing of serendipity with control, reflected both in her process of making and in marks rendered. The stars which captivated Homer, guiding his hero’s voyage, continue to be a backdrop for Roberdeau’s contemplation, new myths and discoveries; and nature, an equal protagonist to any character in our stories, is a theme that guides her body of work.
In her first exhibition with the gallery, Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Koik’s new ceramic sculptures investigate shape and surface by connecting ancient with futurist, handcrafted with geological, anthropomorphic with architectural. In her words, “The pieces in this series could be found in the depths of the ocean, extracted from a shipwreck, or discovered on a distant asteroid or unknown planet. These objects, like Odysseus, are actively searching for versions of homecomings. They are the ongoing journey to get past, move through, float away, or precariously return.” Koik’s use of negative space punctuates, connects, and reimagines recognizable forms as excavated treasures. Her climatic textures evoke metamorphic marble and pitted volcanic rocks, and her inclusion of wood and glass expands and reinterprets her practice, intrepidly pushing forward.
New York-based artist Danielle Dimston’s graphite on paper “Beeline” series conjures topography, direction, and time. Titled for an idiom describing the most direct route, Dimston’s works meander in their flow, and increasingly so. As the minimalist series progresses, her continuous dash expands its route. She lifts the pencil, interrupting yet energetically returning to her journey again and again. Shifting perceptual awareness between organic and structural, Dimston’s drawings examine space and the constructs of light and energy within form. Her lines course and cross—as if traversing a map or weaving a shield from the precarious, offering passage or protection.