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Abstract
This exhibition of paintings, titled Off The Wall, consists of eighteen works. Each creation is unique in form and imagery. Often, I have witnessed viewers at galleries and museums stand in front of a painting and, in dance-like movements, maneuver back and forth with little interaction between them and the work – then the viewer simply leaves this work and moves to the next. The viewer's participation is typically a frontal experience, since the painting hangs parallel to the wall. This is where I find room for exploration. In breaking down the relationship of frontalism between the work and wall, I see an opportunity for improving the engagement of the viewer with the painting. The viewer has the potential of seeing these works from other vantage points, other points of view.
Off The Wall consists of a group of works that I define as paintings, which challenge conventional notions of painting as a frontal viewing experience. My work demonstrates how a painting's physical, conceptual and artistic potential may break free from the attachments or confines of the wall. The paintings now encroach into the space of the gallery to confront the viewer. Like the traditional rectangle, the forms function as an infrastructure, a support for the paint. There is a blurring of boundaries between painting and sculpture, leading to the creation of a hybrid. Thus, the viewer, confronted with these alternative forms and perspectives, witnesses and comprehends other possibilities that define what a painting can be.
The basis of my inspiration is founded on historical and current works of nonobjective abstract painting. This style of painting satisfies me as an artist, and I have taken the difficult step to advance the vocabulary. The idea of creating paintings that project off the gallery wall may not be new, but perhaps the idea of breaking the frontalism that exists between the wall and the viewer is worthy of further exploration.
