Paintings at the Four Seasons Hotel-Philadelphia

(photo: James Miller)

I'm very pleased to announce that several of my paintings are now on view in the Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel-Philadelphia. The works will be exhibited until January, 2015. This show consists of 7 paintings: 5 completed earlier this year and 2 older pieces from 2010 and 2013.  My thanks to the Bridgette Mayer Gallery and James Miller at the Four Seasons for arranging this show.

New roads

On the studio wall, an as yet untitled new painting, acrylic on panel, 48 x 48 inches. 

I've been developing some new work on paper and smaller panels for the past few months and am at a point where I'm scaling things up a bit. I'm returning to some themes that I started with back in 2010, namely the use of the stencils that appeared in several works on paper and panels from that year. I made a lot of works where I attempted to incorporate the stencil patterns with other imagery-geometric and loose linear forms-with varying results. I chose to put that work aside for a while and continued my focus on the work that would make up 'Presence', my solo exhibition at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery in 2013. 

I finished a few other paintings that will be in an upcoming (August-December, 2014) show at the Four Seasons Hotel here in Philadelphia in the spring of this year. Since then, I've refocused my efforts on making works that incorporate some of the stencil patterns and are monochormoatic. I've wanted to move towards a monochromatic palette for a number of years, but didn't quite feel comfortable with it, but now seems to be the time to dive in. I've had some silver acrylic paint sitting in my studio for a couple of years and wasn't comfortable using it with my color work. I think that when I started experimenting with the silver (plus black and white), I began to see ways that silver could be an asset to the work.

So, I'm off on a new road. I don't know how long it will be, but I'm just going to try and enjoy the ride.

Philip Guston

A great excerpt from "Philip Guston: A Life Lived", in which the artist responds to a question about the seemingly abrupt change in his paintings from abstraction to the cartoonish figurative works that he might be best known for...

I Can See For Miles

I Can See For Miles, 2014, acryilc on paper, 30 x 22 inches

Estate

Estate, 2014, acrylic on panel, 48 x 36 inches

Release

"Release", 2014, acrylic on panel, 30 x 24 inches

Edge of the Deep Green Sea

Edge of the Deep Green Sea, 2014, acrylic on panel, 48 x 36 inches

So Much More...

"So Much More", 2014, acrylic on panel, 30 x 24 inches

Studio 6.26.14

On the wall: two new works on paper

Each: acrylic on paper, 27 x 19 inches

First oil

"Still Life with Blue Cloth", 1983, oil on masonite, 14 x 8 inches

The studio cataloging project continues and with that has come some interesting re-discoveries, like the one pictured above. That is my very first completed oil painting dating from my senior year in high school. I remember working on that painting for a long time in class, but was very happy with the results in the end. For the time, it wasn't bad. What I regret now is the lame signature that I put on it, but, oh well. It has held up pretty well. It's been stuffed inside of an old black portfolio case for most of it's exisitence, along with other older works, so there's been very little exposure to any adverse conditions. 

The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters | ARTnews

Odili Donald Odita, Firewall, 2013. 

©ODILI DONALD ODITA/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK

The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters | ARTnews

This is a really good article about the complexities and problems faced by black painters working with abstraction.

Studio 5.02.14: Bad painting day

Man, things went really bad with this painting yesterday. I wound up painting out half of it to start over. I'm going in today with what I hope is a fresh perspective and see how I can salvage it.

Studio 4.26.14: Detail

Detail of a new painting-in-progress. Combining different modes of image-making in the paintings more often now. 

Studio journal: October, 2010

Studio journal, October 2010

Process control patches from various packages.

For some reason, I went through a period of collecting these color blocks and taping them in my sketchbooks. I find them quite interesting as little pieces of art, I guess. I also like that they impart something about the making of the packaging, and by extension, tell us something about the marketing of the products within that packaging through the use of specific combinations if the CMYK color palette.

Aesthetics 6250 A.U.

I'm very happy to announce that my work is featured in the latest edition of Aesthetics 6250 A.U. art magazine. This issue also features the fine work of Philadelphia-based photographer, Iman Jones. 

Here's a link for the digital version:http://pyakule.com/aestheticsmagazine/exemplumvirtutisinvite.html 

A printed copy can be purchased here:http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Aesthetics6250AU

'Abstraction Today' press coverage

The artist panel discussion that I participated in at Bucknell University a couple of weeks ago received some good press coverage from Matt Farrand of the Standard Journal, a local newspaper in Lewisburg, PA. 

Pictured here is myself on the left, in front of my paintings at the Downtown Gallery, the venue for "Abstraction Today" (curated by Bridgette Mayer), which also featured Neil Anderson, Charles Burwell, Nathan Pankratz, and Rebecca Rutstein. Next to me is Samek Gallery Director Richard Rinehart and Greg Stuart, Bucknell's public programs outreach manager.

Below is a closer view of the text: 

studio 3.08.14

New work: in-progress and completed

(click photo to enlarge)

Openings and closings

OPENINGS

Neil Anderson, "Earth Songs: Architecture of the Plane", installation view at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery

Neil Anderson, "Earth Song No. 2", 2013, oil on linen, 36 x 56 inches

Neil Anderson's show of new paintings "Earth Songs: Architecture of the Plane" opened at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery this past week and continues until April 19, 2014.

Also, two painters who have previously shown at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery have shows in Philadelphia this month:

Allen Bentley, "Pull Close", 2013, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

Allen Bentley's exhibition of new paintings is on view at F.A.N. Gallery in Old City is on view until March 29, 2014

Keith Crowley, "Effulgent Pause", oil on aluminum panel, 48 x 72 inches

Keith Crowley's "Unseen", a show of new paintings is at Tiger Strikes Asteroid until 

March 30, 2014

CLOSING SOON!

Juri Kim

"Symphony In Red", 2013, acrylic on canvas, 76" x 102"

Spencer & Imler

"The Dexter Side 11", assembled painting on paper, 24" x 24"

This is the last week to catch a great duo show at the  LGTripp Gallery. Juri Kim's "The Harmony of Chaos" and Spencer & Imler's "Assembled Paintings on Paper" close on Saturday, March 15th.

*All images courtesy of the respective galleries and artists*

Scenes from "Abstraction Today" panel discussion...

Neil Anderson and Nathan Pankratz

My works in the show

Neil and Nathan with Neil's wife, Connie

Rebecca Rutstein in front of "In White"

Neil Anderson's paintings

Nathan Pankratz's "Registration Painting I"

Crowd arriving for the panel discussion

Outside

Scenes from Tuesday's "Abstraction Today" panel discussion and reception at Bucknell University's Downtown Gallery in Lewisburg, PA. I was there with Neil Anderson, Nathan Pankratz and Rebecca Rutstein to discuss our work and take questions. 

The event was very well-attended and there were some great questions from the audience. It was also nice to learn some things about my panel mate's work and processes that I had not been aware of previously. Between the panel discussion and car ride there and back, I think I talked more about art with other people than I have in the past year, since my time in the studio is spent talking to myself and at the work in an effort to figure out what the hell is going on with it. It's nice to have real-time confirmation once in a while that I'm really not the only crazy one out there with the same thoughts, hahaha!

Way back machine-2008

Self portrait in my studio-2008

It’s interesting to look back at images of older work that I may have forgotten about and seeing the precedents for some of the things that I’m doing now. I usually have two, maybe three different on-going projects happening at once. Some get started one year and I’ll pick up on those themes again sometime down the road. Other things get more regular attention, and still more I drop altogether.

It’s all changing all of the time. It isn’t a “there” that I’m after, it would be no point in my making art if there was. Largely, it’s the experience, and trying to make some kind of sense of that experience visually. By experience, I mean the journeys involved in making art, the concurrent concerns of life and the questions raised by all of it.

Life + art=why(?) + what if(?)