Opening reception, Saturday, April 16, 6-9 PM
From the start, artists have been engaged in a tug of war between positive space and negative space. Positive space, often the star of the show because of all its descriptive possibilities, has the capability to objectify, narrate, or illustrate on behalf of the artist. The formal counterpart, negative space, occupies the more mysterious and elusive side of our visual psyche, tempting the artist to creatively interpret the emptiness. Negative space is the open area between the apples and wine bottles of your favorite still life paintings, the light poking through the trees in a landscape painting, and it is the space between you and me. These gaps between us, along with the actual and imagined tensions they hold, have been top-of-mind.
The abstract works featured in BREATHING SPACES are all playful negotiations between positive and negative space, either through the devolution of tangible forms or the disintegration of space through colorful, resonating atmospherics. Despite a varying array of ideas among the artists, all of these works walk up to the edge of recognition yet remain open through their resistance to clarification.
