GREGORY JOHNSTON – NEW WORKS AT ERIC FIRESTONE GALLERY
04:00 pm - 07:00 pm
Eric Firestone Gallery, 4 Newtown Lane, East Hampton,
Eric Firestone Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Gregory Johnston with an opening reception from 4 – 7pm on Saturday November 17th, 2012.
Borne out of the artist’s adoration for cars and Abstract painting, these works combine the aesthetics of finely cut aluminum with mirror finishes of automotive enamel, arranged into “super light” wall mounted panels. The floating fields of color evoke a Zen-like quality through their pure abstraction and compositional symmetry, while at the same time referencing the exhilaration of Grand Prix races of the mid-twentieth century.
Above all, the work is steeped in Color Field and Geometric Abstract formalist traditions, inspired by such masters as Palermo, Judd, McGlaughlin, and Reinhard. There is a contemporary familiarity with this art, which is modified into a riff on formalist ideals. Judd wrote, “For one hundred years the most powerful aspect of space has been color. The one hundred years of the primacy of color is still only a beginning.”
As much as this work revolves around formal aspects of color arrangement, these pictures are vivid and reflective. They embody the properties of mirrors, reflecting every nuance and passerby, every onlooker. This subtle irony makes the work quintessentially twenty-first century-provocative, narcissistic and seductive.
Along with this exhibition, Gregory Johnston’s work will be featured in the gallery’s booth at Miami Project during Art Basel Miami Beach, December 4th – 9th.
