Surfaces: Large-Scale Contemporary Abstract Painting - 2018

Abstract painting is a broad category for non-figurative artworks that focus on line, form and color: elements that can be considered the principle building blocks of abstract art since the beginning of the 20th century. This exhibit features five Midwest artists who approach abstract painting through a variety of different methods. From strong gestural brushstrokes to hard-edged abstraction, minimalism and open compositions with broad washes of color, the exhibit aims to survey how abstract painting evolved from the post WWII era, when Abstract Expressionism was considered the most dominant artistic movement of its time.

Exhibiting Artists: Tom Berenz (Milwaukee), Shar Coulson (Chicago), Emmett Johns (Door County), Margaret Lockwood (Door County), and Shane Walsh (Milwaukee) – a selection of cross-generational artists who incorporate present-day materials sampled from the internet, popular culture, nature, and technology to make their distinctive abstract works.

“As abstract painting is on the rise in contemporary art circles, The Hardy Gallery felt it was important to devote its last exhibit as a learning opportunity for the public to gauge what abstract art is and how it derived as a completely American art form caused by political upheaval.” ~ Sarah Zamecnik, Executive Director

On Exhibit: August 31–October 14, 2018

Tom Berenz

My paintings are about my relationship to the world around me; cerebral and physical, intellectual and visceral. I use the chaos as a metaphor to discuss personal, sociopolitical, environmental and ideological issues. Through the motif of confusion and chaos, I explore the existential self and examine personal narratives, with some being more literal and others more enigmatic. Notions of loss, place, memory, space and time are central as I reexamine personal experiences from my past and present. The imagery is in constant flux, but always returns to a pile. A pile is everything and it is nothing. It is a mound that once was and now isn’t; a mass of information, both physical and metaphysical, organized and chaotic. These works emphasize form over narrative. I inject painterly gestural forms with flat edited down shapes. This results in a striking dichotomy between the strong emotional subtext of the work and the stark rigidity of its execution.

Shar Coulson

I am influenced by the interconnection between humanity and nature. The organic qualities of my work stem from my love and respect for nature and its mysterious repetition of line and form. Working from my visual memory, the figuration appears and disappears within the shapes and gestural movements... it’s perception vs. reality that intrigues me.

“Each free-flowing exploration is only complete when the abstract touches the familiar...that point when something definite has been created, but its mystery is still intact. My hope is that when someone views my work, they are drawn in and connected on an emotional level to something fundamentally human.”

Margaret Lockwood

I constantly desire to paint canvases that create the feeling of space. My tools are color relationships, layers of atmosphere and rhythmic interludes. I want each work to gently welcome viewers into a peaceful place within the painting and within themselves. The work sometimes begins with looking at the surrounding landscape or often begins as a conversation with the painting before it. No matter how they are started, the real work comes in the doing, while I am in the middle of it all, with the canvas covered and the spiritual nature of the work taking form. I am required to have trust in the unknown and yet-to-be, remaining open to change and chance along the way, but also to direct the creation.

In Door County, WI I lived in the woods and then in a farmhouse with open fields all around. The work is overwhelmingly a response to my appreciation of the fragile beauty of those remembered trees and the peacefulness of fleeting light and color across the fields and in the clouds above. I respond to the atmosphere and the private spaces and moments still to be found in our environment and daily lives. I am concerned with the layers of connection between our external world and that of our inner worlds, and how we relate to and are informed by our precious environment, each other, as well as our hopes and memories. I want to make visible the mysterious atmosphere of landscapes and spaces within us, our spiritual homes. Each of us is alone ultimately. Understanding this solitude may bring feelings of sadness, but knowing that this is common to all of us can be profoundly reassuring. We can feel connected to our world if we notice. We can feel connected to those who are with us now, along with those who came before and those who are yet to be, if we care. I hope there are some who can feel this mysterious yearning mixed with wonder in my work.

Emmett Johns

My abstract paintings are part of a continuous flow of work; each new piece is influenced by the preceding painting. It either continues a direction or rebels against one in some way, shape, or form.

I work with sudden, impulsive, instinctual brushstrokes that I depend on for my theme. It’s important to stay in that mode and not back off too quickly. I have to allow that outburst to express itself completely.

At a certain point I stand back and survey what’s happening and then begin to reshape, define, and harmonize in a more methodical approach. This stage takes time, and one has to give one’s intuitive side a chance to digest what direction you go in next. Those last few strokes are the ones that count the most.

A few years ago at a poetry reading by Louise Gluck, she stated that each poem has one line that is a gift. When I heard her say that I thought that same idea could apply to my paintings. The final strokes on my paintings come from the depths of my intuitive soul and I am always surprised and amazed and yes…they are a gift. As a jazz musician would say ..I was in a the zone.

Jazz has played an important role in my painting in this non-objective style. I’m not a musician, but I’ve been a jazz aficionado since I was in high school, admiring the freedom of improvisation and the development of a theme.

My first experiences with serious art were in California and New Mexico where I learned to love all kinds of art. Somehow the abstract/non-objective works inspired me the most. Subsequently, through the years I’ve steadily developed my own process of painting in this manner.

The art of painting is the most magical, exciting and rewarding experience.

Shane Walsh

Shane Walsh’s paintings are the result of his involvement with collage, both in a literal sense and as a conceptual framework for understanding the legacy of abstraction.

Walsh’s process begins with small-scale collages constructed from photocopies of various shapes and marks - some expressive, others graphic or digital - which respond to the history of abstract painting. Using the collage as source material, he then translates his compositions into large-scale paintings. This overall approach allows him to treat the history of abstraction as a storehouse of moments from which to copy, paste, and sample. This cutting, copying, and pasting, however, owes as much to the punk and hip-hop posters of the artist’s youth as it does to modernist collage traditions.

The photocopy itself also serves as an important metaphor in Walsh’s work. Just as an image repeatedly reproduced on a copy machine will become distorted over time, so our understanding of abstraction is altered as paintings are transmitted and reproduced through time and culture. This process is akin to the children’s game of “telephone”, in which the original message often emerges drastically altered and distorted by the time it arrives at the last participant. For Walsh, these distortions are something to celebrate and provide him with the opportunity to re-construct an image of abstraction that feels appropriate to his time and place.