Ronald Feldman Gallery shows New Works by Bruce Pearson

Written by Noel Bernard Tuesday, 26 April 2011 20:34

New York City - For his fifth exhibition at the Ronald Feldman Gallery, Bruce Pearson will exhibit new paintings and related drawings that are based on text which has been transformed to the point of near indecipherability. Constructed from large Styrofoam slabs and carved with a “hot” wire, the creviced wall reliefs depict camouflage-like patterns and intricate web designs.  The title of the work is both revealed and concealed within the work.  Pearson explores that pivotal point where form is pushed to abstraction but can still be recognized.  Information can be sensed and felt by deciphering the codes. On view through 18th April, 2009.

The exhibition features monochromatic paintings that are studies of color and surface and their relationship to light.  A glossy, black painting, Funny that you should think that walking backwards is a sign of intelligence, from a poem by Monica de la Torre, creates a sense of infinite space.  Tonight let’s listen, from a poem by Raphael Rubenstein, exploits variations of the color gray.  The texts in several white paintings from the series Spirituality Today, in which no shade of white is repeated, intersect with alchemical and Kabbalah images and incorporate allusions to the Op art of Bridget Riley.

Pearson’s Encyclopedia series comments on the absurd attempt to catalogue all knowledge and is paired with the eclectic breadth of the references informing his work.  Encyclopedia #4 combines botanical imagery from nineteenth-century sources with phrases culled from the front page of The New York Times (9/21/08) – that lurch from crisis to crisis what could happen without a decisive move agreed he had no choice.

From the artist’s ongoing series about contemporary definitions of masculinity, The latest signal that men are being primed to become the new women integrates fragmented text with a grid derived from outlines of figures taken from magazine images.

In Hikuli, the title is spiraled upon itself, and its brilliant colors are based on the palette of North Mexican tribal art, synthesizing form and content.  A reference to the 60’s, An answer that was really at the end of the line combines text by Harry Smith, an experimental filmmaker and musicologist, with an aerial photograph.  The painting replicates a system of mapping and, as happens in many of Pearson’s works, is affected by the light.

Recent exhibitions by Bruce Pearson include a solo show at Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard in Paris and the following group exhibitions: Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Pierogi et al; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Styrofoam; Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, It’s Gouache & Gouache Only, curated by Geoffrey Young; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Sensory Overload: Forces of Light, Sound, and Motion; and Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, Optikats.

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts was founded in November 1971 at 33 East 74th Street by Ronald and Frayda Feldman. In 1982, after one season with both uptown and downtown exhibition spaces, the gallery consolidated at 31 Mercer Street in SoHo. Since its founding, gallery artists have participated in more than 2,000 national and international exhibitions. The gallery exhibits contemporary painting, sculpture, installations, drawings, prints, and hosts performances.

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts -  31 Mercer Street -  New York, NY 10013 -  212.226.3232 -  www.feldmangallery.com

For more information, contact Sarah Paulson: (212) 226-3232 or sarah-at-feldmangallery.com