April Street's Fabric-Wrapped Paintings Explore Bodily Abstraction at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

April Street's exhibition 'The Shoulder and the Bow' at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects from 20 January to 3 March 2018 featured eight small works that blend painting and sculpture. Street's process involves wrapping her body in fabric and dipping into paint pools, embedding color into fiber through private, physical acts. Using hosiery fabric, she creates interlacing surfaces where wrinkles and knots become compositional elements, as seen in 'Woman with blue flowers' (2016), where material confusion evokes dancerly movement. In 'A knight's tale with pink vase' (2017), sculptural fabric and paint swirl dramatically, while 'Fall to earth' (2017) shows colors spilling like an oil slick. However, works like 'An arrangement with apple and bird' (2017) adopt more straightforward still-life references with low-relief objects, which critics found forced compared to the abstract pieces. The exhibition highlights a trend of painters expanding into dimensional space, with Street's best works allowing material energy to dictate form rather than imposing representation. The review, from the April 2018 issue of ArtReview, notes that the paintings succeed when Street relinquishes control, creating a haptic, bodily fantasy.