George Rush and a.k.a. ZEN at David Richard Contemporary

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GEORGE RUSH

March 2 - 27, 2011

Reception for the artist
Friday, March 4, 2011
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

A solo exhibition of new paintings by George Rush will be presented by David Richard Contemporary. Rush stages for the viewer a twelve-hour period from 5 am to 5 pm in a cycle of paintings showing the same view of a room with two chairs and a table set with various objects. Using a variety of sizes and focus, Rush has organized the paintings to reflect the passage of time in three ways. First, a shift in color from a soft blue grey to a deep orange signifies changing light. Second, the slight movement of furniture and objects from painting to painting bring to mind the possibility of an unseen human presence. Finally, the specific time of day each image takes place is recorded in corresponding titles. Individually, each painting represents a unique composition but collectively they provide an opportunity for the viewer to further unravel the workings of various narrative strategies and formal systems.

505PM, 2011, Oil on canvas, 30" x 24"

As in his previous work, Rush manipulates various modes of abstraction and representation to play off each other in dynamic and authentic ways. He is a master of creating an aura of withholding, presenting just enough information to create the illusion of familiarity but not sufficient detail to resolve questions or derive definite conclusions. As critic and artist Roger White has written for the exhibition’s catalogue “the artist seems to propose that the ambiguities created by the paintings (their parafictionality, interpretive openness, stylistic surfeit, and unstable sense of time and place) constitute something like the human condition, in the painter’s own corner of the world: being here, now, means never quite being sure where or when you are, or if you’re there at all. High on the list of feelings that the artist is exploring, in the most traditional way, is this slight feeling of unreality.”

5PM, 2011, Oil on canvas, 54" x 50"

George Rush received his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA from Columbia University. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Miami, Detroit, Copenhagen, Denmark and Madrid, Spain. His work has been included in over twenty-four national and international group exhibitions since 2000 and numerous publications. He has received awards from The New York Foundation for the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He lives and works in Columbus, Ohio where he is a faculty member at Ohio State University.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an on-line catalog with an essay by Roger White.

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5AM, 2011, Oil on canvas, 54" x 50"

a.k.a. ZEN

March 2 - 27, 2011

Dawn Arrowsmith, Meris Barreto, Lisa Cahill, Laura De Santillana, Merion Estes,
Gregory Frank Harris, Maxwell Hendler, Otis Jones, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Minoru
Kawabata, Masatoyo Kishi, Scott Malbaurn, Robert Motherwell, Sumiye Eugenia
Okoshi, Harue Shimomoto, Jack Zajac, Eric Zammitt

Opening reception
Friday, March 4, 2011
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

David Richard Contemporary is pleased to present a.k.a. ZEN, a group exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures featuring contemporary and historic artwork from the 1960s through1990s that were either inspired by Zen philosophies or evoke a Zen sensibility. The exhibition is divided into four sections, each focused on an aspect of Zen and in separate gallery spaces. The first, at the core of Zen philosophy, is gestural abstraction with an element of chance, evocative of the spontaneity in nature. Non-illusionistic and capturing just the essence of an object, includes works by Meris Barreto, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Minoru Kawabata, Masatoyo Kishi, Scott Malbaurn and Robert Motherwell.

MATSUMI KANEMITSU, PACIFIC SERIES 2 AM,
1972, Sumi on paper, 39 1/2" x 29 1/2"

The second gallery is focused on meditation, which is a loose translation of the word Zen and a key aspect of Zen practice to attain enlightenment. Typically seated in a lotus or half lotus position during meditation, the practitioner regulates their mind by focusing on breathing, posture or some other object. These are referred to as anchors, such as the meditation centers exhibited in the artwork by Dawn Arrowsmith, Merion Estes, Sumiye Eugenia Okoshi and Eric Zammitt, along with the Bodhi sculptures of Laura De Santillana.

DAWN ARROWSMITH, FUTURE GREEN / PINK LIGHT,
2001, Acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"

The work of Lisa Cahill, Gregory Frank Harris, Harue Shimomoto and Jack Zajac in the third section shifts the emphasis away from the material world and toward nature, becoming one with the universe where there is no difference between the infinite and finite, just a continuum. The fourth section of the exhibit includes the art of Maxwell Hendler and Otis Jones, which focuses on minimal and reductive forms that cause discovery, contemplation and introspection.

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LISA CAHILL, CATCHING LIGHT #6,
2008, Kiln formed and hand carved, 22" x 25" x 3/4"

NOW REPRESENTING:

Merion Estes
Charles Hinman
Tom Holland
Roland Reiss
Robert Swain

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Dallas Art Fair (The Fashion Industry Gallery) April 8 -10, 2011

SOFA New York, (Park Avenue Armory), April 14 - 17, 2011

Art Chicago, (The Merchandise Mart), April 29 - May 2, 2011

San Francisco Fine Art Fair, (Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center), May 20 - 22, 2011

Directors: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger

David Richard Contemporary • 130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501 • p (505) 983-9555
Monday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. or by appointment