"The Bending Line"
The Daura Gallery will feature Lauren Collings: The Bending Line from May 17 to Aug. 15. Collings is an artist based in New York, whose abstracts, still lifes, and landscapes feature vibrant colors and soft shapes.
Summer hours are by appointment Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; call 434.544.8349.
Below is Collings' statement about this exhibition.
"This series of paintings follows a line as it travels through atmospheres. I am interested in how paint is expressive not only in color but also in texture. Using textures that oppose each other or coexist in discord make the surfaces feel more alive. The sculptural quality of the line penetrates the field of haze, which may lie over or under the line. At times both line and ground may be so close in color that they are only distinguishable by difference in texture. In this way appearances and disappearances hang in a gentle balance ...
"I like thinking in rhythms and echoes. Thinking about the substance of paint, the alchemy of pigments and oils, is echoed by an alchemy that results from the intermingling of the subjects of a painting. Together combinations of colors, forms and images serve a higher purpose; they call to a poet that dwells within the collective soul. In order to conjure the poet I take note of obscure places and odd combinations of objects found or imagined. I wonder what it would be like to exert different forces on them, expose these items to the elements, or subject them to various atmospheric conditions. Sometimes my paintings remain abstract while other times I am able to bring in a reference to this playful way of thinking and I am more direct in my rendering of forms. All forms, literal or nebulous, interact and spark something like a chemical reaction that leads to a deeper understanding of a particular time, place and way of being."