|
A Note to Our Readers:
As the world turns, I feel
it's about time I came
out of my voluntary
suspension -- my year-long
writing sabbatical. Going
forward, I hope to resume
this Scene 4 art feature on an intermittent basis.
To partially make up for
my year-long absence, I
would be happy to invite
all of our faithful
readers on a journey to
New York City, to the
Opening this November of a
very promising group
exhibition at my Lower
East Side gallery,
Lichtundfire*
ARIADNE'S THREAD - To the Origins.
A 10-Year Anniversary Exhibition
This show will premiere
four recent paintings of
mine, reproduced and
discussed below; while a
Vernissage is planned for
November 5!
I am delighted to be able to recommend gallery
Lichtundfire
to our readers, not just for their good judgement of showing my own work (cue in an appropriate smiling emoji), but for their decade-long commitment to a consistently high quality exhibition program.
To tease out an
Ariadne's Thread from
the general fabric of
contemporary art shown
today, Lichtundfire
exhibits something rare
these days - consistent
good taste. As most
private art galleries,
they specialize. In their
offerings you will discern
a preference for the
reductive -- for the
concise and the pithy,
rather than its
embellishment. That is not
to say that they eschew
the work that's richly
colored and generously
expressed. Witness their
respect for textured
surfaces - delighting in
unusual materials and
their surface effects,
that's uncommon on the
recent gallery scene.
Thus, I was particularly
happy to contribute this
painting, just completed,
whose design and impact
rests on the central
structure made of glass
beads.
"Criss-Cross (with Georgia on My Mind)" 24 x 20 in. (61 x 51 cm)
Flashe and glass beads on birchwood panel, 2025
The white-colored central element of its rather unexpected
composition is formed with glass bead gel -- tiny glass beads in
acrylic solution. It's in the nature of this translucent material to
change, to vary its effects with the changed angle of viewing, with
altered intensity or angle of incoming light striking the surface. I
have thus been experimenting with glass beads for the past
decade, and found them to be particularly impactful in my post
-minimal paintings -- sparkling the surfaces, making the
interaction of structural elements more unpredictable, freer.
Incidentally, re: the title of this painting: the parenthetical
"Georgia" should be counted not as a reference to geography, but
to a fellow artist -- Georgia O'Keeffe -- as I was struck by a
sudden compositional affinity with some of her remarkable
southwestern and landscape paintings.
My next painting in this show comes from a different place and
mode of painting. It's practically flamboyant in comparison; its
48-inch length is the largest painting size I've used over the past
two decades.
“The Way” 48 x 36 in. (122 x 91 cm)
Flashe and acrylic on birchwood panel, 2022-2025
The Way is almost programmatic in both its expansiveness and
concision, or would be -- were it not so enigmatic, so poetically
insistent upon the visual rather than conceptual outcome.
Encountered directly, it unfolds and takes you in -- and continues
to unfold over repeated viewings. This is a desired and consistent
effect, to which the design of my paintings tends to gravitate,
compositionally and coloristically.
You might also sense this painting's compositional affinities with
Far Eastern Art's sensibilities, and that is hardly accidental. I have
been deeply influenced by Ancient Chinese Art. Think for
instance of its Confucian concept and practice of "the empty and
the full"-- which in painting can help generate vast and
continuous spaces by spare and minimal means. And space in its
turn creates its own time... .
"The Unfinished Masterpiece", 40 x 30 in. (102 x 76 cm),
Flashe and mixed media on birchwood panel, 2025
The title of this next painting also alludes to time, The Unfinished
Masterpiece.
(As to its potential subject, allow me to mention only that the title
has something to do with that enigmatic Balzac's story "The
Unknown Masterpiece".) This large panel developed into a rather
unusual, spatially intricate composition, which I took
considerable care not to overwork. What is harder to convey in a
reproduction, is the way the balancing of colors establishes its
depth, and how a very special, partially iridescent acrylic gel used
in several areas of the painting, plays with the light and surface
texture... .
"Ukiyo - Floating World (2)", 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76 cm),
Flashe, acrylic and glass beads on birchwood panel, 2025
If "Ukiyo" sounds familiar to you, you may have recognized it as
the term for the unparalleled achievement of Japanese woodcut
artists of the 18-19c., Ukiyo-e = The Pictures of the Floating
World. The floating, almost watercolor quality of our world in
flux, ever-renewing itself, is likely central to what this picture is
about... but I reckon your interpretation here is as good as mine --
for the completed painting, once out of my studio has now a life
of its own, reverberating with the viewer no less than with its
ostensible creator.
*For the particulars of visiting this exhibition, corporally or
virtually, use the gallery website at Lichtundfire.com .
|
