The idea for the show came together in a natural but direct way. I realized that I saw something in the work of these artists that reflected my own concerns about nature and how it’s represented in an abstract but organic manner making a sythesis of the two modes.
The artists I’ve selected do abstract work which has points of departure in the natural world, and is then encoded with their unique system for creating the work.
None of the work in the show is derivative; all of the work seems a bit obsessive, in the best sense. I hope that you enjoy this collaboration.
Erik Bluhm’s works originate as symbolic representations of nature, the environment or an ideal idea. His images are constructed from recycled paper, with a dual existence as a composition as well as an archival reference to the original printed matter.
Bluhm’s “large scale shape posters and banners contain iconic images and shapes that are forms identifiable as significant yet only inherently.” Artist’s statement.
The central concern in Bluhm’s work is about how social and creative movements come into being and how those ideas are perceived.
Other projects include films, performance, music and writing.
Katy Crowe’s paintings are synthetic evidence of a desire to move planes, arcs, axis, strokes and stains over the tooth and fiber of the surface activating edges and layers of charged particles, slowing the trajectory, cooling the unruly through freestyle geometry.
Channing Hansen’s series of Quantum Paintings are inspired by a desire to manifest radical scientific paradigms through the discourse of painting and to give form to contemporary ideas about time and space that exist mainly as abstractions. The colors and textures of the paintings' knitted surfaces—which range from loose to tight, raw to refined, thick to thin, chunky to fine—are determined using a mathematical algorithm. Hansen leaves the frame at least partly visible through the stitches, suggesting a physical continuum in which a painting exists in two, three, and even four dimensions: painting as portal.
Janet Jenkins’ abstractions, on canvas and panel, explore fields of shifting glazed color and shape. The negative and positive spaces reference the theatrical lighting device known as a cukaloris during the process of making the work.
Julia Paull's drawings, A Series of Circumstances, show the potential for both rational and intuitive descriptions of existence. They reflect experience - social, psychological and physiological. Some drawings are derived from large, public events while others are more intimate in nature. When combined the drawings reflect a larger meta-conversation involving energy, movement, and beings existing in space.
Marie Thibeault’s work seems to compress architectural elements in pictorial space in almost a visual time lapse, which creates a dynamic layered picture plane.
Brush strokes become gyres, gravity tips and twists as lines and colors collide.
She uses color intuitively as well as symbolically. The works in the gallery are a response to her concern with environmental issues and it’s impact on our future.
All works courtesy of the artist and George Lawson Gallery.