Traditional techniques of “hatching” and “cross-hatching” –– using short, consecutive line segments, either parallel or crossed, to represent light and shadow as a means of modeling naturalistic form –– has been a fundamental element of drawing and printmaking since the Middle Ages. Though none of the artists in this exhibition practice naturalism, we can still see an echo of the historical process of working with repeated lines to create content, each artist’s approach to contemporary form-building distinct from the another.

Whether created in paint, paper, tape, ribbon, fiber, blocks, rods, steel, or motion, repeated lines provide the fundamental structure to each of the works in this exhibition. Donna Sensor Thomas’s methodical linear compositions, Andrew Chalfen’s carefully balanced tessellations, and Jay Walker’s interlocking geometric forms all incorporate strict, systematic precision to created regularized patterns. They evoke the mathematical dimension of hatch marks, commonly used as notations marking divisions of length (the tiny repeated lines on a ruler, for example), or indicating equivalence in measurements on geometric shapes. Others specifically avoid or complicate this scientific regularity. Carole Loeffler’s linear fibers refuse to conform to disciplined order even as they ultimately organize themselves into geometric wholes, Paul Santoleri’s concentric curves blossom into organic compositions, Stan Smokler’s grids and spikes are offset by rounded or bowed abstractions, and Denise Philipbar’s rotating color blocks and stacked threads create imbalanced and precariously teetering forms.

The conceptual and productive sense of the term “hatch” -- to devise an idea or plan according to careful thought, then to incubate and produce it -- underlies all of these projects. Originating from the individual mind of the artist, each of these works are meticulously conceived, developed, and cultivated in the intellectual sphere, then generated in physical form to be shared with viewers, inviting us into the discussion.