PRIMARIES
JOHNNY ABRAHAMS
EXHIBITION DATES:
NOVEMBER 5 - DECEMBER 17, 2022
“It can sometimes be quite simple to capture beauty using intention and control, but to make beauty with a little bit of destruction is more of a challenge and I think more rewarding when it happens...” - Johnny Abrahams
Romer Young Gallery is pleased to present its third solo exhibition with London based artist Johnny Abrahams. Primaries presents a new series of diptych paintings which contrast colorful acrylic with the void spaces of raw burlap and linen. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, November 5th 1-4pm.
“At the very heart of these works is just a very simple concern for form, texture, and color, and how to assemble these three elements into something that feels true or elemental.”
To come to understand this new body of work is to explore the artist’s affinity with irregularity, accident and imperfection as pathways to the sublime. Deceptively simple, Abrahams’ paintings are charged with imperfection. What appears near-perfect at first glance subtly reveals ebbs and flows of paint, a surface textured with the knubby irregularity of the burlap, exposed staples on the sides, thick paint acting as a record of the unpredictable brushstroke, and an uneven display of light reflected on the surface. The paint, applied with large brushes, creates ridges that wander and wobble and highlight the organic nature of one line against the rigidness of the other.
Much of the energy in these paintings can be discovered in the collision of their precision with their tolerance for play. Color, in addition to being the organizing principle for the serial variations in this new body of work, is one of the main languages with which the artist introduces the collision. Abrahams creates a “break” in the painting. This deliberate and willful interruption invites an active meditation that challenges the viewer to question and reflect the ways in which the unintentional is purposeful. Rather than anchoring the viewer to a known perfect order, Abrahams subtly undermines the structure of the grid and creates opportunity for the unintentional to play out. The dominant traces of control and its “accidental” byproducts come together in harmony as Abrahams strives to strike a balance between the intended and the unknown.
Rilke wrote, “if you stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.” Abrahams has taken the non-objective elements (line, color, texture) and synthesized these elemental qualities in such a way that embraces chance as a language for beauty. The end result is a harmonious balance between intention and accident, perfection and imperfection, thus infusing the work with feeling and greatness.
For additional information, please contact the gallery at 415.550.7483 or email info@romeryounggallery.com.
INSTALLATION IMAGES:
