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Between the Woods

The exhibition ‘Between the Woods’ was a solo show at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia in 2008. There were five large canvases measuring 5’ x 7’,three smaller paintings measuring 3’ x 3’, a catalogue published by the gallery with an essay by Judith Stein entitled Post-Ironic Landscapes. The paintings are made with the addition of glitter collaged to the surface of the painting. Referencing Warhol, Rob Pruitt and Karen Klimnick’s use of the collaged material they “collude with mass culture” (Stein) while exploring the value of the sublime and the illusory aspects of ‘straight’ painting, extending the landscape genre and enforcing low grade interactivity onto what might appear to be the static familiar genre of landscape painting. The paintings are intended to confront the viewer into re-assessing the notion of painting and what might make a landscape painting contemporary, while the political notion of the landscape underpins the conceptual basis of the work. The physical remove from the land is intended to be seen as a gateway for our desire to further embrace it culturally.

Referencing our lost relationship with the great outdoors and the perceived exile of the artist (removed from the subject in the studio), the intention is to take liberties in re-making the connection with nature as the subject of the works. What may be seen as a risky gesture adding glitter, seen as a kitsch material used by the hobbyist or for the Primary Class Christmas Project, is here employed as the perfect understudy for the natural phenomenon it represents in the artwork. Paintings from this exhibition Grotto 2008 and Copse 2008 were later exhibited in 'Water' at the Sun Valley Centre For The Arts Idaho in 2010.