Duane Reed Gallery: Friday, 23 October 2008
FRIDAY - OCTOBER 23rd, 5—8 PM Opening Reception
William Quinn • Cassandria Blackmore
The Duane Reed Gallery is excited to present the work of acclaimed artist and St. Louis native, William Quinn. Globetrotting between St Louis, New York and France for more than forty years, William Quinn has continually surprised us with newly invented images, not through a resort to quick novelty but through his natural painterly gift. His achievement as an artist is best understood as a synthesis of his outlook on life and art, his American beginning and his extended European sojourns. In the process of melding these elements into a mature artistic style, Quinn takes us through a breathtaking history of abstract painting within each canvas. The viewer will find recent works grounded in tensions between aggressive, brutal picture planes-yet others have lyrical structures that seem to create a real space, then melt back into dreamy languid forms. As a modernist associated with Abstract Expressionism, Quinn asserts painting’s two dimensionality, but there’s always a suggestion of narrative to be deciphered. Barely perceptible landscape and figurative elements evoking in turn: travel, adventure and romance, lead each painting to tell an unrepeatable tale about the painterly representation of the passage of time and the true location of beauty.
Cassandria Blackmore
Blackmore is a master of reversing the complex layering of paint found in conventional canvas paintings. By utilizing a technique known as reverse glass mosaic painting, where glass sheets are painted, shattered and painstakingly reassembled - Blackmore explores painting as a technique where mistakes cannot be made and masked by corrections. In her own words: “The viewer gets to see the most intimate brush strokes. The true intent of the artist.” She asks us to imagine when we view her work that, “a sheet of glass is between us. The first stroke I put down on the glass is the first stroke you see.” sharing the moment of inspiration and discovery along with the artist, “It's almost as if you are inside the painting.” in effect we are looking at the reverse side of the painting like a two way mirror. This process leaves the margin of error heartbreakingly small for the artist, like a bronze casting where anything that goes wrong jeopardizes the entire casting, a single error means the painting is often abandoned. Every finished painting requires considerable time to execute and planning to conceptualize. “Each stroke must be executed with purpose and intention. After the paintings are cured they are shattered and reassembled.” thus Blackmore allows a little bit of chance and randomness to enter her artistic equation.
William Quinn • Cassandria Blackmore
The Duane Reed Gallery is excited to present the work of acclaimed artist and St. Louis native, William Quinn. Globetrotting between St Louis, New York and France for more than forty years, William Quinn has continually surprised us with newly invented images, not through a resort to quick novelty but through his natural painterly gift. His achievement as an artist is best understood as a synthesis of his outlook on life and art, his American beginning and his extended European sojourns. In the process of melding these elements into a mature artistic style, Quinn takes us through a breathtaking history of abstract painting within each canvas. The viewer will find recent works grounded in tensions between aggressive, brutal picture planes-yet others have lyrical structures that seem to create a real space, then melt back into dreamy languid forms. As a modernist associated with Abstract Expressionism, Quinn asserts painting’s two dimensionality, but there’s always a suggestion of narrative to be deciphered. Barely perceptible landscape and figurative elements evoking in turn: travel, adventure and romance, lead each painting to tell an unrepeatable tale about the painterly representation of the passage of time and the true location of beauty.
Cassandria Blackmore
Blackmore is a master of reversing the complex layering of paint found in conventional canvas paintings. By utilizing a technique known as reverse glass mosaic painting, where glass sheets are painted, shattered and painstakingly reassembled - Blackmore explores painting as a technique where mistakes cannot be made and masked by corrections. In her own words: “The viewer gets to see the most intimate brush strokes. The true intent of the artist.” She asks us to imagine when we view her work that, “a sheet of glass is between us. The first stroke I put down on the glass is the first stroke you see.” sharing the moment of inspiration and discovery along with the artist, “It's almost as if you are inside the painting.” in effect we are looking at the reverse side of the painting like a two way mirror. This process leaves the margin of error heartbreakingly small for the artist, like a bronze casting where anything that goes wrong jeopardizes the entire casting, a single error means the painting is often abandoned. Every finished painting requires considerable time to execute and planning to conceptualize. “Each stroke must be executed with purpose and intention. After the paintings are cured they are shattered and reassembled.” thus Blackmore allows a little bit of chance and randomness to enter her artistic equation.
posted by Bill Barrett at 3:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home