Art

In the world of Janie Milstein’s work, highly constructed and architecturally influenced elements with sharp angles and tidy lines exist in contrast with soft, organic textures.  Working with wood, wire, and mesh materials in her Reflections series, Milstein constructs three-dimensional assemblages inspired by reflections in a city’s myriad windows and buildings’ angles. What is generally seen as ridged—the concrete and steel of an urban landscape—Milstein renders graceful and loose. The richness of her palette in Elevations, a series of works on paper, is applied abstracted shapes derived from cityscapes. The soft, grainy qualities of charcoal, ink and acrylic on rough cotton paper give the impressions of shadows and reflections. She constructs environments that imitate both the structure and chaos of the city, and softens them up, making them seem ethereal and romantic.