Gwen Davidson

"Reflection"  48" x 60"  acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas  2014

"Wallowa Mountains"  48" x 36"  acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas  2014

"Fields near Galway Bay"  36" x 48"  acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas  2012

"Beach Fire"  24" x 36"  acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas  2013

"Neahkahnie Haze"  48" x 60"  acrylic and charcoal on paper on canvas  2014

Here's another artist whose work will be on display this month in my home town of Portland, Oregon (see also Jackie K. Johnson featured in my previous post). Both artists explore the gray areas between landscape and abstraction, but while Ms. Johnson sets out on what seems to me an almost narrative endeavor, Ms. Davidson's art is more descriptive and meditative. She works initially with a combination of acrylic paint and charcoal on paper. The paper, in rectangular strips of varying proportions, are then applied to canvas. The method gives the work a rigid geometric framework but the organic nature of her subject not only survives but somehow thrives within it. Perhaps the human mind is so powerfully predisposed toward order and pattern that their imposition relaxes the eye to the point where we can more comfortably see. Or perhaps in this age of digital pixellation we are simply more accustomed to viewing re-ordered and restructured interpretations of the world than we are to looking at the real thing. Either way it is clear that Ms. Davidson is a keen observer of both. Even her most abstract pieces unfailingly capture a genuine sense of place and atmosphere.

You can see more of her work at Froelick Gallery where her current show which opens tonight, will run through the end of May. You can see still more at Meyer Gallery in Park City, Utah.

Jackie K. Johnson

"Lures at Mill’s Edge"   2014   oil on canvas   48” x 60”
photo by Aaron Johanson

"Paragraphs Stand in Dance"   2014   oil on canvas   48” x 60”photo by Aaron Johanson

"Stories Off the Hip #2"   2012   oil on canvas   40.75" x 32.75"

"Thinking of Shad"   2010  oil on canvas   48.75" x 60.5"

"Stories Off the Hip #1"   2012  oil on canvas   40.75" x 32.75"

"Hand Work"  1993  clay   12" x 7.5" x 8.5"

Jackie K. Johnson has a new show of work up in May at Laura Russo Gallery in Portland, Oregon, which means I get to actually go see it. I'm not sure if I've ever seen abstract art that suggested a narrative potential to me so strongly. On the face of it, this doesn't make all that much sense. How can abstract art be narrative?

Clearly the abstraction is not complete. There are representational references, not least of which is the three dimensional modeling of the shapes, suggesting that they are not simply shapes, but things, and things have names. The human mind giddily imposes meaning on everything it absorbs. In some of the paintings I see trees and leaves, hills and waterways, and bits of architecture as if they were aerial landscapes or maps.

The reference to landscape is at times unmistakable. But they don't strike me as just any kind of map or scene, mere depictions of a place, but maps as interpretive illustration, depicting journeys or histories. Some even use the imagery of lures and bobbers to accompany the occasional fish like forms that hover cloud-like overhead, lending the pieces even more specificity to their potential interpretation. And yet they remain inscrutably, mysteriously abstract.

Some of her work is organized quite differently, suggesting a kind of arranged presentation, a still life perhaps, but still grounded in a story, like Marsden Hartley's famous "Portrait of a German Officer". The fact that they are titled "Stories off the Hip" gives me hope that my narrative reaction to the work is not so far off base. Some of her older sculptural work is more obviously representational but somehow less narrative and more purely visual. But there is a definite visual consistency between them and the paintings.

I may be way off base about the whole narrative issue but it hardly matters. At any rate, artistic intent isn't everything. Skill and a practiced hand can lead artists to accomplish things beyond their ideas, and preconception can be a restraint on creative potential. At the very least these are a hell of a lot of fun to look at. I'm looking forward to doing so in person very soon.

Eric Aho

French Forest, 2012
Oil on linen, 52 x 48 inches

March Eight Hemlocks, 2013
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Nocturne (Apex), 2011
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Ptarmigan, 2013
Oil on linen, 48 x 60 inches

Small Lynx, 2013
Oil on linen, 36 x 30 inches

Eric Aho's work has moved more deeply into pure abstraction over the years and yet it remains deeply embedded in the landscapes that the artist so clearly loves. The line between abstraction and representation is more like a vast gray zone between two peculiar and, for my money, less interesting extremes. Magritte made it clear representational art is still essentially abstract. A painting of a pipe is not a pipe. It is a painting, an amalgam of shape, line and color. Aho makes it clear that an unrecognizable arrangement of colors, shapes and marks can still be a powerful expression of things that exist in the real world. His paintings seem to blend the old romantic landscape traditions that attempted to evoke the awe and wonder one can experience in the face of the vastness or subtleties of the natural world, with the expressive modes of de Kooning and other abstract artists. The degree to which he bridges this seemingly enormous gulf is the key to his success. JMW Turner occasionally accomplished something similar over 150 years ago before pure abstraction was even considered a viable possibility. But since then this kind of synthesis has not been particularly well explored. Which is unfortunate, since it strikes deeply into the essential truths that painting is capable of and humbles a simple narrative artist like myself.

You can see some wonderful work on the artist's website (ericaho.com). Much of it is older but it's well worthwhile to see the gradual shift in his work from representation to abstraction. For more recent work check out DC Moore gallery.

I posted his work once before way back in November2009

John Evans

"New Orleans Botanical Gardens Pool - 2"  48" x 60"

"Regal Ceremony"  60" x 72"

"Incantation"  12" x 12"

"Evening"  16" x 13"

"A Curious Ring of Boats"  oil on canvas  60" x 96"

Painting is nothing more than arrangements of colors and shapes on a flat surface. This fundamental fact is of course what led artists to finally explore abstraction in the early twentieth century and it has been a viable and dynamic from of expression ever since. But all painting relies on abstraction. Representation is merely the interpretation of three dimensional reality into 2-dimensional abstract shapes and colors. The blurred borderlands between abstraction and representation is the entire focus of many artist's work including John Evans. Real places in the world (a beach, a botanical garden) are ostensibly his subject, but they are mere excuses for exploring the power of composition. These are bright and cheerful works by an artist who wants to delight. And he manages to do so with a real gift for color and a rich array of marks and textures. There's plenty to look at on his website: www.evansartstudio.com
...and you can see his work in person of you happen to be in New York City at Gallery Henoch.
He's also represented by galleries in Nantucket MA, Greenwich CT, Laguna Beach CA, Palm Desert CA and San Francisco.

Valerie Hird

"Fourth Day"  96 x 72 inches  oil on linen  2011

"Third Day"  96 x 72 inches  oil on linen  2011

"Cycles Al-Andalus" 
48 X 72 inches  oil on linen  2004

A Last Supper

72 x 48 inches  oil on linen  2004

"the vermont book of hours - January"  watercolor, asphaltum on BFK paper 11 x 15 inches  2009

I first came across Valerie Hird's work when I started this blog in 2008. Her work has wandered from abstraction to narrative representation and back again, picking up numerous cues from and references to historical artworks along the way. A Vermont native with a deep connection to the region, she has also traveled extensively, especially through the middle east absorbing and processing other artistic traditions. Her love of myth and story has led her to explore themes as different (and yet strangely related) as religion and super-heroes. Throughout it all she maintains her own stylistic sensibilities; subtly simplified forms, a generally warm and inviting palette and an eye for complex geometric compositions.  There's a lot of work to look through at her website, and a tremendous variety as well but it's all worth it.
www.valeriehird.com
And if you happen to be in New York you could go see her work in person at: www.nohrahaimegallery.com

Peeta

Teatro (theater) Marinoni, Venice 2012

Yespray graffiti Jam, Settimo Torinese, November 2012

Bosnia and Herzogovina, Graffiti Jam, September 2012

Paris, March 2013

Early on in the history of abstract art, painters gave up the illusion of depth and embraced the limitations of two dimensions. At the time it was an innovation, an acknowledgment of truth in art, but it also led eventually to a whole slew of painters who filled entire large canvases with a single undifferentiated shade of a single color. I won't even name names. But the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface is just too appealing. It's a trick. Of course it is. Sometimes it can seem like magic, akin to a woman floating weightlessly over a table upon a stage. The artist here, Manuel Di Rita, from Italy, goes by the name Peeta. He started off as a graffiti artist, and though he also produces works on canvas for galleries along the same lines, it's the graffiti that appeals to me the most. Perhaps it's because of the context, in which the illusion, the trick, is augmented by the immediate and undeniable fact of the the flatness of the wall it's painted on. The dichotomy creates an almost immediate and visceral sense of delight. The work is fun. It needs no explanation. A child can appreciate it as easily as an adult and I mean that in the best possible way.
To see more go to his website: www.peeta.net or to his flickr page.

Philippe Chabot

"sans-titre (le gala)", 2012, 66" x 60", Acrylic on wood

"machine à vide", 2012, 48" x 48", acrylic on wood

"Getting Comfy", 2011, 64" x 50",  acrylic on canvas

"Bife Weater", 2011, 64" x 50", acrylic on canvas

"Moonshiner", 2012, 48” x 48”, acrylic on wood

Phillipe Chabot is an artist in Montreal, Quebec, whose highly stylized expressionist figures of only a couple of years ago have largely faded into pure abstraction. Those roots in representation provide the work a solidity and skill level that are often missing from some young artists who dive straight into abstract work. Drawing is the foundation behind painting. And draw he does. Even when it's just shapes. He has a keen affinity for composition and color and makes full use of a range of textures and mark making. Large flat areas of color and sharp edges are countered with the occasional hash-marks, drips and gestural brushwork. The contrast between the expressive mode and the more careful constructionist style is new, dominating his more recent paintings. All of this may be of little interest to the casual viewer but it's an integral part of his process and process seems to be his real interest. To get  a really good idea of what this means in practice you really should watch his short time lapse video of a 2010 painting on his website (here). Myriad images appear and disappear as he paints over and over building up layers, most of them are eventually completely covered. But the final image reveals enough of what went on before to give some feel for his approach.
See more work at www.pchabot.com

seen at www.booooooom.com

Grant Miller

untitled (67) (diptych)  Acrylic on Aluminum Panel  77 x 96 in.

detail, untitled (67) (diptych)  Acrylic on Aluminum Panel  77 x 96 in.

Untitled (2)  Acrylic on Aluminum Panel  48 x 72 in

Untitled (60)  Acrylic on Aluminum Panel  41 x 46 in.

untitled (SVB-374)  Acrylic and Mixed Media on Wood Panel  48" x 48"

Historically lot of abstract painting has been all about acknowledging the flatness of the painting, jettisoning the illusion of depth. Grant Miller is not unique in heading off in the opposite direction, but his work creates depth with it's own peculiar energy and exuberance. He builds up transparent, semi-transparent and opaque layers to create something akin to atmospheric perspective in addition to the more obvious linear perspective formed by assorted frames, ladders and other architectural elements. The linear perspective of course obeys no ruling vanishing points, but heads off in innumerable directions while sinuous ribbons and amorphous blobs fall haphazardly amidst it all. At times it can feel like he's creating the illusion of not just a third dimension, but possibly a fourth and fifth as well. The looser more gestural forms look almost like something that a 5 dimensional baby spilled on it's fathers 4 dimensional schematic drawing. The layering is the real key to it all. The material and drawing that you don't see is as important, maybe more so, than the graphic pop-art elements floating around on the surface. That's where the real depth, that vague impression of non-euclidean geometry, springs from.

You can see more at his website: grantmillerart.com
or at Byron Cohen Gallery

Alexey Adonin

"Frozen In Time"  oil on canvas  80x80cm  2011

"Afflatus"  oil on canvas  80x80cm  2010

"Dream Symphony"  oil on canvas  80x80cm  2011

"The Red Planet"  oil on canvas  50x60cm  2008

One of my rare abstract entries is by an artist originally from Belarus and now residing in Jerusalem. There's a resemblance to abstract science fiction illustrations from the 1960s (like Robert Powers) that immediately appealed to me. I do not think the similarity can be accidental as there is a distinct homage to science fiction in some of his work as in "The Red Planet" above. While the images are essentially abstract and are, according to the artist, created without any preconception there is always a strong hint of figuration or more commonly landscape. He builds up layers using a variety of techniques with large windows in each, so that the final images is a kind of collage of textures. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page and also on Bluecanvas.com

Vincent Desiderio

• "Couple", 2009  Oil on canvas  14 x 11 inches
  

• "Figure Ascending Staircase", 2009  oil on paper mounted on board  17 x 12 1/2 inches
  

• "My Father Fallen", 2009  Oil on paper  13 1/4 x 16 inches
  

• Mourning and Fecundity, 2007  Oil on canvas  97 7/8 x 148 inches
  

• "Portrait Before Orozco", 2010  oil on paper on prepared board  64 x 48 inches
  

• "Abstract Study After Michelangelo (Study for Sleep) III" 
  

  2009 Oil and mixed media on paper mounted on panel  8 x 10 1/2 inches

Usually I try to post artists who are busy trying to promote themselves, trying to make some small headway in the usually thankless task of making art a career. But every now and then I find out that I've been completely ignorant about a very well established artist. just google Vincent Desiderio and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, as you can tell from the work above, he is primarily a realist painter, whose unafraid of abstraction. The best abstract artists are realists at heart anyway (if I may be so bold). But his realism is often highly narrative, something you don't see all that often on the museum walls these days. The narratives, not immediately obvious from my examples, seem to be mostly dark, disturbing, sometimes downright grim depictions of adult life with occasional studies of the innocence of childhood where the weighty shadows of the future seem to hover around the frame. His pallette is mostly ochres & umbers, brighter colors coming in occasionally to set off the gloom of his psychologically shadowy world.

Like I said there's a lot of places to look at his art, but this gallery (www.marlboroughgallery.com) is where I got the images above and they have quite a few more.