Working with highly reduced palettes of whites, grays, blues, and browns, both Nancy Agati and Agathe Bouton focus on line, shape, and contrasts of light and dark.  But their work diverges sharply on their individualized approaches to these forms. The monotypes and collages in Bouton’s Habitat and Urban Matter series are inspired by the straight lines of modernist architecture and hard-edged geometrical forms of the urban environment, while Agati’s sweeping curves and interweaving lines in her Portico series and related paintings are reminiscent of Italian Baroque ornamentation and the time-honored lace making traditions of Sicily.  Bouton’s squares and angles play against Agati’s arcs and undulations throughout the exhibition, all rendered in subtle variations in tone that unify these complementary bodies of work into a coherent and balanced duet.

Agathe Bouton, a French printmaker from Paris who has also lived in London, Myanmar, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Turkey, creates work that responds to her experiences during her travels and the cultures she encountered. Since settling in the Philadelphia area, she has been inspired by the urbanism of the city, whether a sleek, new apartment block, an abandoned warehouse, or a half-demolished home. Her latest works are interpretations of these buildings, with both broad street views and focused details from single structures – the pattern of the skyline, a patchwork of broken windows, an industrial color palette.

She is drawn to the history of the spaces and lives lived within these buildings, as well as their intrinsic beauty of the structures, whether that beauty emerges from design or degradation, or some combination of the two. Bouton studied at ESAA Duperré in Paris, and has exhibited her work in Europe, Australia, Japan, India, West Africa, Myanmar, Turkey, and the US.  She is a member of 3rd Street Gallery, the Main Line Art Center, InLiquid, and the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.

Nancy Agati was born and raised in upstate NY. She relocated to Philadelphia with a BFA from Alfred University, School of Art & Design. Agati earned her MFA in 2007 from The University of The Arts, Philadelphia. She currently resides and maintains an active studio practice in close proximity to the wooded area of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, which along with the contrasting city streets, offer an abundance of source material. Agati has exhibited her work throughout Philadelphia and nationally in a range of mediums from drawing, textile and sculpture to site-specific installations and public art.  She has been a recipient of a Windows of Opportunity Award from the Leeway Foundation and has had artist residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico; Lo Studio dei Nipoti, Calabria, Italy; and at Main & Station, Nova Scotia.  As a recent Tending Space Fellow, Agati has been exploring the practice of mindfulness meditation in relation to her art making process.