The Edge and a Little Beyond: Six Abstract Artists
September 5 - 28 Opening reception: September 5, 6 - 8pm
The Edge and a Little Beyond, curated by Julie Alexander, brings together six abstract artists whose work pushes out the edge of the painting, playing with the basic structure of wood supports and stretched canvas.
Image: Maria Walker, Blue Bird. Acrylic, unprimed dropcloth, wood, 7.5" x 12.5" x 2"
Valerie Brennan’s thick, trowelled surfaces lap the edge of her painted panels, expanding the space of the painting beyond its support. Jamie Powell cuts shapes from her canvases that reference childhood cartoons. Lorri Ott often forgoes the painting support all together, binding color and debris with poured resin. Julie Torres builds the painted object with insistent layers, often creating a meta-object. Susan Scott and Maria Walker take apart and reassemble the basic structure of painting, sometimes leaving it in a heap. The work, verging on sculpture, clearly comes from a painter’s mind.
These six artists, through abstraction, both work within and challenge the perimeter of the painting, pushing beyond the boundary and entering the viewer's space. They do it with a personal mark-making that values joy and uncertainty.