Trio of contemporary artists utilize paper to examine negative space in ‘A Measure Without’

A Measure Without, curated by Noah Reyes at Sandler Hudson Gallery, convenes three of the region’s most formidable contemporary voices: In Kyoung Chun, Krista Clark and Amy Pleasant. Grounded in an investigation of negative space, not as an empty void but as an active, generative presence, the exhibition brings together work of exceptional individual rigor.

As a collective encounter, the show thrives on the subtle material dialogue established across the trio’s handling of paper — an affinity that makes rare departures into alternative formats register with distinct friction.

The strength of the exhibition begins with the sheer caliber of its roster. Chun, Clark and Pleasant each operate at the peak of their craft, using restraint rather than volume to command the gallery walls. Across the space, paper acts as the true connective tissue: Sliced, warped, layered or left starkly untouched to demarcate boundaries between form and absence. The works complement one another seamlessly without slipping into redundancy, achieving a thoughtful balance between figuration, architecture and gesture.

Each artist has brought standout pieces that showcase this material command. Clark’s Untitled, Red Line Series layers and cuts multiple sheets of paper with such deliberate structure that the assembly achieves a genuine sculptural weight while retaining its inherent delicacy. In Keep Walking, Chun exploits the expanse of bare paper to float geographically disparate vignettes — figures, stray objects, fragments of architecture — into an intimate, cohesive field that reads like a dreamlike aerial view of a city, with the sheet loosely mounted to celebrate the organic buckling of dried watercolor. Pleasant’s Elbow III delivers confident quietude, where a tiny, heavily grounded black silhouette is paired with an off-center mat and generous framing, using expansive white borders to amplify the power of extreme graphic simplicity.

Against this shared paper grammar, two specific inclusions sit slightly askew: Chun’s acrylic-mounted Boxed Untitled and Pleasant’s site-specific wall painting, Lift. Both are executed with typical precision, yet their abrupt departure in substrate and scale interrupts the quiet resonance forged by the surrounding works on paper. In an exhibition that otherwise hums with delicate, tactile intimacy, these moments feel mildly mismatched against the overarching conversation.

Beyond these subtle material departures, the primary friction in A Measure Without is curatorial rather than artistic. To navigate and reframe the gallery, Reyes has installed freestanding partition frameworks built from raw two-by-four studs. Intended as minimalist, see-through room dividers, these exposed architectural frames are simply too opinionated to serve as neutral showcasing devices. Rather than stepping back to elevate the artists’ nuanced negotiations of edge and void, the skeletal timber walls assert themselves as an uninvited fourth artist in the space. In a show defined by spatial subtlety, this non-traditional intervention proves to be the least harmonious voice on the floor — a case where a less ambitious curatorial hand would have allowed the exceptional work on the walls to breathe on its own terms.

Still, this minor curatorial misstep does little to diminish the brilliance of the art itself. A Measure Without is anchored by three artists who know precisely how to inhabit space, making the exhibition an essential and deeply rewarding encounter.

A Measure Without is on view at Sandler Hudson Gallery through September 17.

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Dr. Kevin M. Storer is a multidisciplinary computing researcher living, working and collecting art in Atlanta. His approach to art criticism and collecting prioritizes the discursive power of artistic practice over purely aesthetic qualities. This perspective is informed by his internationally-awarded scholarship on the complex relationships between people and the objects we create — especially as they shape our identities and social realities. Kevin earned his Ph.D. in informatics at the University of California, Irvine.