|
Indepth Arts News:
"Phil Sims: Fire/Light/Color/Matter - Paintings and Tea Bowls from 2004"
2004-12-02 until 2005-01-29
Brian Gross Fine Art
San Francisco, CA,
USA United States of America
New York minimalist painter, Phil Sims, opened a solo exhibition entitled Fire/Light/Color/Matter: Paintings and Tea Bowls from 2004 at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, December 2. This poetic exhibition pairs Sims’ meticulously painted, reductive abstractions with his elegantly shaped ceramic tea bowls in a unique and visually stunning juxtaposition. In his second show at Brian Gross Fine Art, Sims’ long-time concern with the physical nature of his medium is underscored by the coupling of his paintings and ceramics.
While best known for his monochromatic paintings, Sims also studied and taught ceramics. Much like the unusual texture of his paintings, this installation explores the complex surfaces of his ceramics, which comprise pits, cracks, skin-like creases and uneven edges that are then layered with opalescent glazes. The thoroughly organic objects retain evidence of the artists’ masterful manipulation of his medium and demonstrate the materiality of color and light.
Sims’ thoughtful consideration of the textural properties of clay can also be seen in his unique handling of paint. In this exhibition, Sims has mixed sand into his pigments to achieve a physical, material color. Sims’ sublimated monochrome surfaces are built of multiple layers of paint that give optical intensity and structure to his deep, intense color. Sims’ vibrant canvases reveal extraordinary subtleties yet render a powerful impressionistic aesthetic.
Phil Sims is an important painter in the context of minimal art. He was born in Richmond, California in 1940, and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, and is represented in international museum collections such as: Musee D’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France; Malmo Kunsthalle, Malmo, Sweden; and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford, Connecticut. Most notable among his private collections is The Panza Collection in Varese, Italy, that owns over 100 canvases by Phil Sims.
Related Links:
| | 
|
