I_Didnt_Say_That

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 30, 2015 at 6:25pm

Curator’s Comments: 

 

Kaleidoscopic rainbow hues lure me to your work with seductive saturation and graphic appeal.  But I look longer, appreciating the cunning figure-ground relationships between form and text; illusionistic space and object.  The circular paintings are reminiscent of Classic tondo paintings, hex signs, and ethnographic calendars seen in the early Americas, while ultimately exhibiting a decidedly American Pop sensibility.  The use of text also throws the iconography into contemporary context. I especially enjoy I Didn’t Say That for its sly ambiguity of exterior shape, and hard edged optical play. I see arrested fluidity of movement when following the orientation of text, and a humorous nod to the negation of representation and meaning. Asserting a negative employs a reverse psychology of sorts; unexpected in its forceful acclamation. Fire and Ice is equally mesmerizing in its repetition of form resulting in heightened optical illusion.  Throwing the focal point or oculus off center undermines the stability of the sphere, and creates a dramatic break in visual tension.  While it doesn’t offer the witty play on language and popular history as some of your other pieces, its formal properties of repetition of contrast and color are equally gratifying.