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CONCEPTS/
IDEAS/ INVENTIONS
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MARK DEPMAN
REMY HYSBERGUE
SUSAN NORRIE
FRANK
OWEN
RICHARD PURDY
YUKO SHIRAISHI
MAY
31 - JULY 3, 2003
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Richard Purdy, 225, 2003,
encaustic on wood, 18 x 30 inches
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Richard Purdy,
90, 2003,
encaustic on wood, 21 x 13 inches
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Richard Purdy, 150, 2003,
encaustic on wood, 29 x 18 inches |
"Concepts,
Ideas, Inventions" including work by Mark Depman, Remy Hysbergue, Susan
Norrie, Frank Owen, Richard Purdy and Yuko Shiraishi opens on Saturday,
May 31st and continues through Thursday, July 3rd.
Each of the artists in the exhibition bases her/his work in an idea that
drives the image, conception and creation of the work. |
Richard Purdy,
1-30, 2003,
encaustic on plywood, 18 x 18 inches
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| Richard
Purdy's new encaustic paintings are inspired by Steven Wolfram's book. "A
New Kind of Science." Using Wolfram's theory of cellular automata,
he creates works based on "Wolfram Sets." Purdy explains these
sets as follows: "Cellular automata are gridbased formations defined
by a 'Rule' that determines the identity of each element. If the first row
of nine squares has a blue square in its center, the computer will choose
the color of the first open cell in the next row by checking the colors
immediately above and always leaving the first and last squares white. The
'Rule' in this situation specifies blue if the upper three are white, thus
all squares become blue in row two. A binary number can express the 'Rule'
as well, which yields 255 possible combinations. Incredibly, a small percentage
produces a chaotic result. One wouldn't think that possible from an operation
so similar to throwing dice." With or without the "rules of the
game" Purdy's encaustics provide a visually exciting and stimulating
experience if one does not know the rules of the game. |
Susan Norrie,
Recipe 2...Mosquito Larvae, 2003,
oil on canvas, 47 x 38 inches
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Susan Norrie,
Recipe 1...Rat Poison, 2003,
oil on canvas, 47 x 38 inches
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| In
the mid-'90s Susan Norrie painted her first recipe painting included in
an exhibition inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's film "l'Avventura."
Embedded in this heavily encrusted black oil painting is a recipe for fly
paper stenciled into its glossy surface, the words appearing to be stuck
to the canvas like flies. Her two most recent works relate to an installation
entitled "Passenger" that the artist is creating for the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia. The project deals with the artist's
on-going concern for the human condition, survival and environmental catastrophes.
The texts of the new "recipe" paintings address moths and mosquito
larvae. As with all of Norrie's works, there is a double meaning, moths
and mosquitoes are both ephemeral and deadly. Like the flypaper recipe,
the letters of her new recipes are trapped in the paint, in its luscious
surface, like flies and moths would be should they be caught in a limpid
pool. |
Yuko Shiraishi,
Across (2), 2001,
oil on canvas, 36 x 32 inches
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Yuko Shiraishi,
Halting Square, 2002,
oil on canvas, 54 x 47 inches
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| Color
is concept, subject, and object in Yuko Shiraishi's quiet, meditative paintings.
One's perception of red is forever altered having seen Shiraishi's installaton,
Red Deference; two paintings wrap a corner and leave a glow in the viewer's
eye. The colors of day are different as one leaves the heat of Red Deference.
Experiences are crystallized through color, applied thinly layer upon layer,
sometimes dark on light, at others light on dark. There is always a trace
of the earlier color visible in a thin line, around a square, or at an edge.
In her new paintings, a rectangle of one color subtly vibrates in a field
of another color, creating a dialogue that one cannot help but think is
inspired by nature and natural phenomenon. |
Mark Depman,
History as a Germ, 2003,
cibachrome, 30 x 40 inches
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Mark Depman,
History as a Wave, 2003,
cibachrome, 30 x 40 inches
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In Mark Depman's new Cibachrome prints, a large photograph (taken by the
artist) functions as background, backdrop and atmosphere for each of his
mise-en-scene works. Whether a wintry view of Guilford Green, or a sunset
captured from a nearby parking lot, the "backdrop" images set
the tone. Like a curtain rising on the stage, the larger image in the upper
half of the photo reveals Depman's unique "still lifes": objects
in his home arranged on tabletops or mantelpieces. Not unlike altarpieces,
these include photographs, snapshots, watercolors, a butter dish, a computer--the
stuff of daily life becomes sacred through Depman's intimate observation.
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Frank Owen,
Untitled (Red), 2003,
acrylic on canvas, 50 x 34 inches
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Frank Owen,
Untitled (Yellow), 2003,
acrylic on canvas, 50 x 34 inches
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Frank
Owen has always been concerned with "authentic mark making" in
his paintings. His recent works investigate what the artist calls 'the question
of uniqueness and multiplicity." Over the years, Owen has invented
many unique painting techniques. In the '70s he experimented with making
molds of massive paint strokes. In the new works he "draws" into
a piece of polyethylene, creating a bas relief-like surface on the canvas
of skeining, whirling, interweaving lines. He then paints into the resultant
negative surface of the canvas. By creating a drawing in polyethylene he
can use again, should he choose, he can probe the possibilities of similarity
and change in works of the same scale. Owen says: "I am entranced by
the states of Rembrandt's 100 guilder print. I am interested in exhaustion
and replenishment." Using this technique he has the luxury of a sculptor
who can cast multiple pieces from a mold, or a printmaker who can pull many
examples of a print from a plate.
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Remy Hysbergue,
Distraction 5, 2001,
arcylic on panel, 63 x 47 inches
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Remy Hysbergue,
Vide Faits II, 2002,
acrylic on panel, 63 x 47 inches
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For Remy Hysbergue the "concept" is the medium itself, the artist's
exploration of the possibilities of paint and its relation to the surface
he chooses, white Komacel PVC panels. The white of the panel seems to emit
light. The white is a constant tying the artist's series together. Sometimes
the artist uses a trowel to apply paint in somber monochromatic tones, at
others he squeegees on a riot of kinetic colors, shocking pink, phosphorescent
orange, in intense shapes, balancing them with the restraint of a pale pastel
horizon line at the bottom of the panel. In his paintings he is looking
for the visual connections that join contemporary art to painting, cinema,
new graphic design and fashion of this century. |
Remy Hysbergue,
Mirobolants No. 4. 2002,
acrylic on panel, 12 x 11 inches
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Remy Hysbergue,
Mirobolants No. 9, 2002,
acrylic on panel, 12 x 11 inches
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Remy Hysbergue,
De Ci De La No.7, 2002,
acrylic on panel, 12 x 11 inches
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Mark Depman,
History as as Particle, 2003,
cibachrome, 30 x 40 inches |
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