Nancy Margolis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Jeff Depners first solo New York exhibition, Variations: Black Napkins, on October 24, 2013, and on view through December 7, 2013. The opening reception will take place Thursday, October 24 from 6--8 pm. In his abstract acrylic paintings, Vancouver-based Depner explores compositional structure through the relationship between colors. His works painted layers create singular, functioning systems of interacting parts, yet juxtapositions permeate—between the architectonic and the organic, the graphic and the painterly, the matte and the opulent. The exhibitions series of Reconfigured Grid Paintings is immediately striking for its architectonic, geometric forms. According to the artist, architectural language and elements of graphic design inform these works and, indeed, Depners shapes are vaguely suggestive of A-frames, fencing and graphic lettering. The artists painting process both mimics and reinforces this architectural theme: thick, sometimes crunchy, impasto passages lend Depners paintings a real structural presence. At the same time, layers are made to interact with preceding layers so that the paintings textures, colors and forms are quite literally supported by what lies beneath. Yet, a second look at these works reveals an equally prominent organic element. Expressive freehand passages, replete with painterly brushstrokes, scratches and drippings, surround—even intrude on—Depners hardedge geometric forms. While the works seem at first defined by precision, upon closer examination, Depners desire to unravel his own uniformity becomes clear. In spite of his repetition of color and form, Depner deftly places thick acrylic next to thin washes, glossy paint next to matte paint, and textured passages next to smooth ones In pitting the architectonic against the organic, the graphic against the painterly, Depner situates his work within an ongoing discourse on geometric abstraction, and the possibilities of painting at large. In fact, his works titles—especially his Reconfigured Grid Paintings—directly reference an interest in reinterpreting the art historical grid for the contemporary world. The artists list of influences—Diebenkorn, Guston, de Kooning, Gorchov, Ryman, Tuttle, Lasker, Picasso, and Halley—speaks to the depth and breadth of this interest.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 09:37:00 +0000