Press Release
Skoto Gallery is pleased to present ?Conversations and Situations:nPaintings and Drawings, 1976-2019?, an exhibition of selected works by thenAmerican artist David Rich. This is his first solo exhibition at the gallery.nThe reception will be on Thursday, September 5th, 6-8 pm.
Over the past four decades David Rich has demonstrated anremarkable ability to fuse abstraction, figuration and urban landscape innendlessly inventive ways suffused with lyrical beauty and an aura ofnspontaneity. His work advances creative dialogue with an abiding confidencenthat visual images can still communicate powerful emotional and spiritualnvalues in addition to formal aesthetics. The concept of the subconscious is anpowerful one in his work and can be very much seen in his deep affection fornthe natural world and intense curiosity about the human and social realitiesnaround him, creating narratives that allow the past to be continually revealednthrough the present. He draws no hierarchical distinctions among his work innabstraction and figuration, rather each facilitates a variety of ways tonrigorously engage with its conceptual and aesthetic underpinnings, makingnlayered meanings possible. And in the artist?s own words: ?These paintings takenshape over time, in both making and seeing them. This involves decisive changesnmade quickly, but also a slow aspect. Both require different kinds ofnfearlessness. This attitude is not about aesthetic refinement. Rather, it remainsnrooted in urgency, making the changes necessary to bring out the implicitnunderlying content more clearly.?
Included in this show is a selection of paintings and drawingsnfrom 1976-2019 that expertly exploit the ambiguity between abstract shapes andnimagery as well as the intriguing play between formal intention and narrativenpotential. Luminous, spare and evocative, the works from the 1970s, his earlynyears of self-discovery and rigorous experimentation with spatial structure andnplacement of color are elegant abstractions with a strong sense of linearndesign and vibrant colors. There is a great deal of critical experience, ofnknowledge and admiration of other artists? researches in this dynamic body ofnwork, as well as an ever sensitive deftly balanced interaction between visualnand emotive concerns. His work nudges us to be more open-minded, to adjust tonthe constant change in the world.
David Rich was born in Chicago, and studied at Kansas City ArtnInstitute (BFA), University of Oregon (MFA), New York Studio School ParisnSession, and Skowhegan. He is a widely exhibited artist both at home andnabroad. Solo exhibitions include Galerie Elizabeth, Chicago, 1979; DollynFiterman Gallery, Minneapolis, 1985, 1992, and 1998; Franz Bader Gallery,nWashington DC, 1986; Satori Fine Art, Chicago, 1997; and University of StnCatherine 2011. He is in numerous private and public collections, including thenWalker Art Center, Minneapolis; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Weisman Museum,nMinneapolis; and Minnesota Museum of American Art. He has taught at severalninstitutions including the MinneapolisnCollege of Art and Design, 1985 -2010, and presently lives and works in the NewnYork Hudson Valley.
Artist Statement
Conversationsnand Situations
paintingsnand drawings, 1976-2019
These paintings are rooted in the physicality of urban landscape,nthe light of late afternoon and evening, and the disjunctive spaces of everydaynlife. They come from different bodies of work over the last forty years, butnthey inform each other in unexpected ways.
The development of these bodies of work is not a linearnchronological progression; the influences move in all directions. As seen in anpainting like Stubborn Ritual, 1978, in relation to both older and newer work.
Arising from a particular intersection of abstraction,nneighborhood interactions, and lived experience, these works reflect a decidedly impurenand vernacular approach to painting. The focus is not on literal description,nbut rather on attitude and presence.
Densely layered and decisively edited, these paintings feel solidnand rooted, yet open and breathing. Shapes group together and lock in, settingnup a spatial structure that shifts as implied connections and ghost imagesnassert an alternate read.
Configurations and intervals are stepped apart, incorporating ansense of discontinuity in which surprising pockets of space open up. They donresolve, the way polyrhythms can resolve in music. These paintings reflect anparticular idea about improvisation, focusing on the elemental way that partsnrefer back to the underlying visual statement, allowing resultants to emergenwith an organic sense of structure.
The paintings are elemental constructions, grounded in everydaynsituations, evoking and provoking charged spaces for looking at, and into. As resonant place for thought. The potentialnfor painting to touch experiential nerves in this way is not a given, but it isnpossible, and it?s what I?m working for. Work to be with, upon the slow read.
David Rich
August 2019
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