Clarity Haynes interviews painter Harmony Hammond whose work will be on view at Alexander Gray Associates, New York from May 19 through June 25, 2016.
Haynes notes that "Hammond has had a pioneering impact on art, in particular through her insistence on feminist and queer content in abstract work." Hammond comments: "Most of my work over the years, at least going back to the fabric pieces of the early 1970s, occupies and negotiates a space between traditional painting and traditional sculpture. A third space. Think of my Floorpieces, which question assumptions about the “place of painting,” or the mixed-media paintings of the late ’80s and early ’90s that sit on the floor and lean against the wall with objects attached to or sitting in front of them. While it is not predetermined, it seems that this is what I do, this is where I hang out. Since I am trained as a painter, I think of this work as 'expanded painting' (painting being 'additive' by nature), rather than 'painterly sculpture.' Even the grommeted holes in the recent grid paintings are partially made by layering or building up canvas and surface versus, say, the slash or puncture of Fontana. In this way, they are connected to the material buildup of Bontecou or Burri."