Constructs:
Abstract
Painting by Nine Virginia Artists
November 3 - December 11, 2005
Ridderhof Martin Gallery
This exhibition focuses on abstract painting that highlights singular works of art fabricated through the composit combination of many elements. The multi-part assemblages in this exhibition echo traditional easel painting, embrace painting as object, and extend painting's reach into the realm of installation. With shared sensibilities toward color and gesture, these artists explore painting through the inventive use of collage, innovated construction techniques, or unusual painting processes. By showcasing the extensive talents of these artists, Cosntructs promotes the constructed image as a viable and veritable approach to painting within Virginia's exemplary contemporary art community.
Sally Bowring, The Fall 2005, 2005, acrylic on panel
58 x 64 inches, Courtesy of Reynolds Gallery
In 1988, Davi Det Hompson, an artist living in Richmond, had a landmark exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art which presented publicly for the first time a series of wall constructions made of shaped wood supports featuring a surface of elemental forms created out of beeswax. Hompson experimented with construction techniques until his untimely death in 1996.
Davi Det Hompson (1939 - 1996), Untitled,
1991
13 x 31 inches
(Photography by Matthew Phillips)
This exhibit explores the similarities and differences found in the work of a number of Hompson's contemporaries as well as emerging Virginia artists who have incorporated painting strategies that embrace assembly of their imagery.