Echoing

Echoing consists of four works, each by an artist who uses drastically different techniques, yet all the works share an affinity for an exploration of the idea of artistic vocabulary.
 

Sol LeWitt in his “Horizontal Lines, Black and Gray,” uses two colors (black and gray) to create an abstract work where the black and gray balance each other and build upon each other (to create more of a spectrum). The bands can’t help but also reference movement, water, etc., yet the most subtle and perhaps most powerful aspect is how the painted lines activate the white of the paper to become an equal participant in the imagery.
 

Julian Opie’s “Walking in Melbourne, 1,” at first glance, seems to be the depiction of a sidewalk scene where six people walk. With further investigation, one sees, not just the depth of the laser-cut boards that form the figures, but that this is an artistically composed scenario utilizing the forms (originating in observation) to create a multi-part composition using balance and movement within and between forms to create a strong, yet simplified scenario where the idea of the individual and communal are deeply entangled.
 

Philip Guston’s “Studio Forms” utilizes the forms found in his studio (clothing, stretched canvases, etc.) to create a new scene that is both casual (line quality, lack of fully identifiable features of a number of the elements) and arranged to question, via allegory, the concept of perspective (receding size of the canvases going back to the left / inside versus outside the studio).

Liliana Porter’s “Her with Bucket” provides a dynamic approach to looking at art with art. Through humor, scale, quotations and process, Porter has created a majestic action painting that displays sympathy for labor, an appreciation for materiality (the specific viscosity and surface with which Porter paints) and a confidence in dismantling the signature of an artist (the gesture with paint) all while disrupting traditional gender roles through the use of the small figurine of the female laborer as the activator.
 

All four works stand strong on their own and the hope with this exhibition to not only provide opportunities for each work to be appreciated but for a view to have the opportunity to see further affinities between the pieces.