Gail Gregg: Recent Paintings
October 25, 2007- December 21, 2007
Reception: October 25, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
511 W 25th St
In her new paintings at
Luise Ross Gallery, the abstract artist
Gail Gregg has turned for inspiration from the aerial landscape views of recent years to more earthbound and quotidian objects: the virtually unnoticed remnants of our consumer culture. Cardboard packing forms, wine box dividers, plastic packaging of all sorts -- all the stuff that comes with the stuff we buy -- is grist for Gregg’s new paintings.
Using the wax-and-pigment medium of encaustic, she transforms these throw-away objects into formal paintings that honor the eccentric forms and patterns of the humble materials. Infused with color—and Gregg is a master colorist -- that is enhanced by the medium’s luminosity, the paintings take on sensuous richness.
Arrangements of loom cards from a 19th century factory invoke the golden mean and honeycombs. Such package fittings as One Way, which protected a radio in transit, take on solid, iconic form – familiar, yet unfamiliar. Similarly, coffee trays are given a makeover in Location 819, painted and dressed up in bits of tulle and satin.
On one level, with their saturated color and hand-burnished surfaces, these new paintings speak to the possibility of transformation – and to Gregg’s belief that beauty can be found in the unlikeliest of places. On quite another, her wit and gentle irony provoke questions about our culture of consumerism and proclivity to waste. Finally, her quietly formal pictures are animated by references to (and questions about) negative space, geometric pattern and symmetry.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show| Location | map | | Gallery | Luise Ross Gallery | | Address | 511 W 25th St, #307 New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States | | Phone | 212-343-2161 | | Fax | 212-343-2468 | |
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