Geometric Cabinet: Scott Alario, Michael DeLucia, Rachel Higgins, Gerard Mullin, Liz Nielsen, Sissi, Joe Winter, Davide Zucco, Jan. 30 - Mar. 6
Opening reception: Thurs, Feb 11, 6-8pm

"Aim: To help develop the child's visual and tactile perception of the shapes of two-dimensional figures...to prepare the child for writing, through the handling of the insets by their knobs, and through the acquisition of visual and muscular familiarity with the movements essential to forming letters.  Indirectly, to prepare the child for later work in Mathematics, through the observation of, and manipulative discrimination between, regularly varied shapes..."
-David Gettman, "Geometric Cabinet," in Basic Montessori Learning Activities for Under-Fives

Kristen Lorello is pleased to present "Geometric Cabinet," a group exhibition inspired by the eponymous Montessori activity, which introduces children three to five years old to discerning shapes.  The exhibition includes tactile works by a group of contemporary artists that relate the shapes present in the six drawers of the Cabinet: curvilinear shapes such as the oval and quatrefoil, equilateral, obtuse and isosceles triangles, trapezoids, polygons, circles, rectangles, and the square.  As a reference, the Cabinet will be included among the works in the exhibition.

The Geometric Cabinet consists of six drawers, each containing a set of cut-out frames with matching insets.  The insets contain a small knob and thus can be lifted from the frame by hand.  The child first learns to recognize the shapes by tracing the outline of the inset and the frame with ones fingers.  Later exercises include removing several insets from their frames at once and then replacing each inset into the correct frame, learning the names of the different shapes, and matching the shapes to separate control cards that contain outlines of the shapes in various thicknesses.

The exhibition itself will convey a sense of the activity's emphasis on solid geometric shapes and their outlines.  For example, Rachel Higgins's rotating "Clock," provides a counterpoint to a circular cut-out in Joe Winter's "Untitled (C/S)."  In Liz Nielsen's Totem, a pentagon, kite, oval, and curvilinear triangle, appear through the paradigm of an adjacent color.

With thanks to West Side Montessori School.

For further information, please contact the gallery at info@kristenlorello.com or 212 614 7057.