Shadows - London

I am spending a few days in London. Here is an image I took this morning of some shadows in the backyard of my brother's house...

En proceso...

En proceso...árbol pequeño...

Luz...ventana...sombras

Through my window...this afternoon...

Things seen - Ernst Caramelle

Ernst Caramelle, Untitled, 1998, gesso, watercolour, acrylic and pencil on wood, 61x91.5cm

http://www.schwarzwaelder.at/galeriedt/mainnews.htm

Ertz - (green)

Here is an image of Ertz (green) 2009, oil on canvas, 50x40cm - a painting I mentioned in a recent post. It seems to me that in my work everything moves in a dynamic circular manner...certain subjects and qualities surface or submerge at different times. Varied and contrasting aspects of my work co-exist in ever new combinations as these circles slowly turn. This is why linear or chronological interpretations of my work would not describe the development processes at all...

Domingo

This painting entitled "Domingo" (2006) oil on linen, 125x105 was recently purchased by the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. It is one of a number of paintings (ongoing) which suggest architectural elements, trees or plants and most importantly shadows.

Tres arboles...

Three little paintings of trees, s/t - 2009, 35x27.5cm, oil on cardboard mounted on canvas, s/t - 2009, 27x22cm, oil on canvas, s/t - 2009, 46x38cm, oil on linen.

New paintings...

Two new small paintings: Profile,2009,oil on linen, 48x35cm & Fence, 2009, oil on linen, 46x38cm.

Painting and its environs

Juan Manuel Bonet is curating this show at Palacio de Sástago, Zaragoza...I shall definately try to make a trip across to see it!

Ayer...

The painting on the wall is a slightly older work that is being reworked. A sail-like form locked into the vertical bar on the right hand side of the painting. On closer viewing the sail becomes more organic and is perhaps part of a tree or shrub that has undergone topiary...then again the sail also appears to be light cast on the ground or against a wall maybe through an open door...I hope to post more images of this painting soon...

Glenn Gould again...

Listen carefully to this interview with Glenn Gould. It is fascinating...at one point he describes the music of Webern almost in visual terms. The way he refers to structures and describes forms using adjectives such as flacid etc.... all this makes so much sense to me...

Glenn Gould plays Orlando Gibbons...

Territories...

A friend commented that this painting owes something to Philip Guston...especially the earlier abstractions. What can I say...I remember looking at Guston when I was a student, and he did make a big impression on me, and still does of course. However, there is perhaps something more fragile and fragmented about this painting. What's more...I don't really consider it to be an abstraction in any ideological way...once again it is a painting which has its origins in the idea of a garden space or artificial landscape.

Figure...shadow

The figure form in this new larger painting has been "articulated" by painting what's around it, in the negative so to say. It suggests shadows too. A melancholy image of sorts yet I have tried to invest it with luminosity. It measures approximately 160x115cm, lacquer and oil paint (and holes) on wood support.

Deba

I spent Friday in Deba, a small town on the Basque coast (in the province of Guipúzcoa). There is a fine beach where one can sit and watch surfers riding the waves. Here are a few images I took around the town...

Thomas Nozkowski at Stephen Friedman Gallery

24 April - 23 May 2009

Private view Thursday 23 April, 6-8pm


Thomas Nozkowski, 'Untitled (8-113)' 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Stephen Friedman Gallery is proud to present their first-ever exhibition of new paintings by American artist Thomas Nozkowski. In June this year, Nozkowski will be celebrated with a mid-career retrospective at The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Nozkowski has become one of the most original and celebrated abstract painters of his generation. From the late 1970s to the present day, he has made paintings and paintings on paper in two specific sizes. Within this framework, he has mined the complex possibilities of imagery and visual language, leaving behind the confines of Minimalism and the commercialism of Pop. The formal qualities of his work have defied definition. Patterns, broken grids, biomorphic shapes and geometric abstraction often collide and multi-faceted figures and complex ground embrace. The result is a unique vocabulary that Nozkowski characterises as having "a quality of logic on the brink of dissolution.”Nozkowski transforms memories of sites, sensory experiences, and emotional states into a glorious array of colour, texture and visual planes. His shadowy cartography creates a physical terrain for 'tetris'-like configurations of pastel hued blocks. In some paintings, grossly inflated balloons rendered in bold, opaque tones are interlaced with calligraphic lines and stand proud in the centre. In others, these forms balance precipitously on steep slopes and slip behind the canvas or slide behind alternate planes.Nozkowski’s quietly confident paintings do not draw attention to themselves but their transcendent beauty brings us to a place where the ordinary and the magical meet.Thomas Nozkowski (b. 1944) lives and works in New York City and High Falls, NY. His work has been seen in over 65 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Recent solo shows include: Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2008), Fisher Landau Center for Contemporary Art, Long Island City (2008), and Subject to Change, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany (2007). Recent group shows include: The Continuous Present, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (2009), Degas to Diebenkorn: The Phillips Collects, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (2008), Point of No Return, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (2008), Think With The Senses, Feel With The Mind: Art In The Present Tense (curated by Robert Storr), La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2007), Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007). 
A mid-career retrospective of Nozkowski’s paintings curated by Marc Mayer will open at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, in June 2009.

Stephen Friedman Gallery25–28 Old Burlington StreetLondon W1S 3AN T: +44 20 7494 1434F: +44 20 7494 1431 www.stephenfriedman.com

Territories - Screen

This painting (Territories - Screen) has recently been completed...

In process - New Territories

Here is a new Territories painting, still underway...but at an interesting stage...in the detail one can appreciate how the paint has been applied in different ways, dry, wet, thick, thin etc...

Art Brussels

ARTBrussels 24th-27th April 2009
Rubicon Gallery Hall 3 - Booth 3A-06
Thursday 23, Private View 12:00-4:00pm & Vernissage 4:00pm-10:00pm
Friday 24 -Monday 27 11:00am-7:00pm
www.artbrussels.be
Presenting new work by;
Robert BORDO, Blaise DRUMMOND, Patrick Michael FITZGERALD,
Anita GROENER, Ronnie HUGHES, Tom MOLLOY,
Thomas NOZKOWSKI, Liam O'CALLAGHAN