80AbstractOL

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on September 20, 2015 at 3:56pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

These urban and industrial abstractions have a considerable and collective emotive presence. While some are more economic than others in terms of complexity and figure-ground relationships, I’m attracted to this particular piece because of the strength of the design, and suggestion of a cruciform structure.   The articulation of texture (through a wash?) in the background space intimates both a nocturnal light source and rising smoke or fumes.  The earthy color palette is almost monochromatic, if we are to assume the rich warm black value is still within the red-brown chromatic scale. For me this red ochre conjures natural organic fluids and process; blood and rust.  But the color associations could also extend beyond natural properties in the dark range, and evokes burning chemicals in the context of the smoke stacks within an industrial complex. To this end, the drawing titled (80) web offers us the satisfaction of specificity, but by doing so, limits the more enigmatic associations.  All in all, the strength of communication may reside in our coming to these pieces without knowing the actual space being recalled.