Garth Weiser: Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL, 60607
Kavi Gupta Gallery is pleased to present the first solo show in Chicago of New York based painter Garth Weiser. Weiser’s latest body of work featuring three large canvases as well as three smaller works on panel continues his unique visual language which pursues the picture plane as a space of abstraction influenced by figural, landscape and geometric forms.
Garth Weiser's paintings begin with an impasto grid in which he builds and manipulates creating a fluctuation between multiple horizons, perspectives and representational apparitions. Sections of his paintings can be compared to landscapes but are reduced to bands of decreasing shapes of color that fold back into space using traditional ideas of perspective. Space is delineated through simple color and shade changes, the same gestures akin to exercises taught to a painting student studying a grayscale or color grid. These common yet challenging exercises in color and form are used to create an abstract spatial plane that emphasizes the simplicity of space, yet the figurative and representational elements suggest a disruption to this order, and a play in which decisions can be made, discarded, and layered.
The surfaces of Weiser's paintings alternate through multiple variations of texture, stroke and gloss. Areas of monochrome color become vibrant layers producing a color spectrum as the result of light interacting with the movement of paint. A comb-like texture effect is often used to denote angles and perspective producing complex illusions of three dimensions. This effect, coupled by areas where the brushstroke is evident and with areas where the surface is thick and smoothed into flat "bricks" of pigment often brings the work to a sculptural level. Color choices span deep browns, blacks, and grays to bright garish pinks and blues adding just one more layer to this visual topography. At first glance the paintings appear as a rigid formal construction and composition, but as the viewer persists, fields of color, texture, and surface variations emerge as complex intersections of line, light and form revealing a realm of geometry and personal iconography.
Garth Weiser was born in 1979 in Montana and lives and works in New York. After receiving his MFA from Columbia University in 2005, Weiser had successful solo exhibitions at Guild & Greyshkul, New York. His group exhibitions have included “Greater New York” at PS1 MOMA, NY; “Hunch and Flail” at Artists Space, NY curated by Amy Silman and exhibitions at Zieher Smith, NY; Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami; Leroy Neiman Gallery, NY; and The Nelson Fine Art Museum, Tempe, AZ.
