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MAIN GALLERY In “Pungent Glimmer” Annie Wharton creates an iconography for a rapidly-moving fantasy world. Tweaking the “pour” exemplified by Morris Louis by adding elaborate details, her mark-making de-rails traditional abstract painting and repositions it somewhere near Neverland. Wharton has been painting on Mylar the late 90s, but the new media she concocts using a variety of plastics, powders, pigments, and metals bring to mind materials customarily reserved for synthetic mass production versus traditional studio paraphernalia. And references to the bottom of the bog and pixie dust are as important as the California desert landscapes and viscera that Florida native Wharton has recently incorporated into her vernacular. Wharton states, “My work is about the juxtaposition between exigent beauty, ironic configurations, and organically-inspired whimsy. ‘Pungent Glimmer’ distills references of all of my interests and influences (fairies, muscle cars, California wasteland, amoebas, punk rock and electronic music, outer space, and the excess promulgated by Hollywood), for this show I have created abstract depictions of a fucked-up daydream rife with idiosyncrasies.” David McDonald will present work from a new series of sculptures entitled “Minor Monuments.” Consisting of cast columns made with mortar, cement, and Hydrocal, along with various pigments and coloring agents, these pieces tread a line between improvisation and a deliberate sense of composition. While the works are clearly conceived in the artist’s mind, the actual casting process and introduction of color is a somewhat random process over which the artist must relinquish control. The final sculptures have a beautiful sense of mark making, a soft subtle sense of color, and a strong physical presence despite their unassuming scale. The withdrawing of the artist’s hand allows the pieces to have a quality of just existing with no ulterior reason for their existence or any overt intentional symbolism. PROJECT ROOM “Hubris Cream" is an exhibition of paintings by Jason David where the architects of Western culture are seen in slapstick. Distinguished faces covered in a creamy residue, sour and destructively parasitic, these intimate portraits capture the giants of yesteryear as they revel in their decrepitude and obsolescence. Once they challenged the gods, now they find themselves ignobly retired. Are we all made of the same stuff? Will we all suffer the same fate? |
{ select an artist's name below to view works } David McDonald Jason David Annie Wharton |