Anthony Giannini "Mess Head" @ Diane Rosenstein

Table Top Still Life (Residuum 4), 2018

Acrylic on Canvas

96 x 72 inches

Remnant (Enumerate 3), 2018

Acrylic on canvas

84 x 60 inches

Left:

Remnant (Enumerate 1), 2018

Acrylic on canvas

23 x 31 inches

Right:

Remnant (Enumerate 2), 2018

Acrylic on canvas

23 x 31 inches

Remnant (Grid Study 1), 2018

Acrylic on canvas

23 x 31 inches

Table Top Still Life (Residuum 3), 2018

Acrylic on canvas (diptych)

77 x 94 inches

Sarah Mikenis in "Transfigured" @ Diane Rosenstein

Cover-Up (Lavender), 2018

Oil on canvas

60 x 50 inches

Slippage, 2018

Oil on canvas

60 x 46 inches

Faking It, 2018

Oil on canvas

30 x 24 inches

Julian Stanczak "DUO" @ Diane Rosenstein

Succession, 1989

Acrylic on canvas

60 x 60 inches

Offering Violet, 1970

Acrylic on canvas

70 x 60 inches

Mystic, 1976

Acrylic on canvas

38 x 28 inches

Touching Purple, 1986

Acrylic on canvas

70 x 70 inches

Interactive, 1989

Acrylic on canvas

44 x 22 inches

Offering White, 1991

Acrylic on canvas

33 1/4 x 24 1/8 inches

All the complications of vision are present with these works, paintings that reference color, pattern, and rhythm.  The restlessness of of each one reminds more about the value of a present moment as they eye continuously shifts to locate something.  Such was the movements of earlier Op Art attempts  as well. If the tension of structure and contrast within each is not enough in terms of line and shape, then color itself can be seen as complicated within the viewing experience itself AND my photographic representations. If you look at the first image, both the whole composition and my details reveal the diversity within a single image. If that's not enough, the camera's inability to grasp some kind of "truth" about the primary viewing experience should also be cause for contemplation.  Such a medium and the media it represents ought to be taken in proper context and perspective not for a means to a simple end of pleasure (but partially why not and in spite of my own partial distaste of these, partially because most won't look past the Op dazzle and partially because they are too uniform in my opinion) BUT rather too consider the symbolic language offered here about how something as seemingly simple as color, form, and pattern can give way to complex thoughts about difficulties of understanding, perception, and possibly how such things change over time.  Taken together over a thirty year period, it is also remarkable to consider the shift, slight as it is within a single body of work, one that asks how to ponder and reconcile the relations of two or DUO as the exhibition title states. Just compare the first two paintings in this post as a starting point; they are twenty-nine years apart yet could have been made the same day off the same palette. Change and an understanding about change is subtle at best.

Joe Ray "Complexion Constellation" @ Diane Rosenstein

In Space, 1980

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

86 3/16 x 40 1/8 inches

New Eye, 1969

Cast resin and Plexiglas

7 x 11 x 11 inches

Crescent, 1969

Paint on Plexiglas and paper

15 5/8 x 12 3/4 inches

Lowell Darling, Tony Ramos, and Joe Ray

The Green Hotel Performance, 1972

Ten vintage gelatin silver prints

14 x 11 inches each

Untitled, 1970-72

Thirty-one gelatin silver prints

55 x 51 x 1 1/2 inches

Flaming Star Nebula #1, 2017

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

96 x 60 inches

Becoming Ms. Burton, 2017

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

96 x 60 inches

Rings and Spheres, 1980-83

Cast Resin

5 x 110 x 11 1/2 inches 

Fields to the Yard (#1-23), 2014

Printers ink, silver gelatin print, inkjet print on paper

26 3/8 x 22 3/8 inches

Art Is Energy, 1979

Ink, tape, paper

11 x 14 inches

I like how Joe Ray allows me to think about the word race in so many ways.

Human Race(s) (color)

Space Race / Race to the moon

Arms Race (energy)

Historical Speed... (development and expansion)

A constellation of color(s) that is/are complex... Complexion is complex. So, "Complexion Constellation" is not only an apropos title for this exhibition in so many ways and a painting that combines process-oriented mark-making with language, but also apropos for life more universally, once, now, and forever.