Heart Above Head. Featuring nine new vivid compositions, the exhibition shows Bavington's adept translation of the aural and emotive to the optical and conceptual.
Mark Moore Gallery presents "Heart Above Head," the gallery's sixth major solo show from Las Vegas painter, Tim Bavington. Featuring nine new vivid compositions, the exhibition will showcase Bavington's adept translation of the aural and emotive to the optical and conceptual.
Drawn to vibrant palette of his neon-lit hometown, Bavington is a master of richly saturated color and visceral execution. Sourcing the melodies, instrument solos and prominent arrangements from pop and rock songs, he transcribes music into bands of synthetic polymer – the pigment oftentimes evoking the dynamic mood of ballad and artist alike. A lyrical Neil Young melody becomes a linear arrangement of polychromatic stripes, while a fervent Jimi Hendrix riff transforms into bleeding psychedelic abstraction – the style of both soloists echoed in Bavington's own interpretive technique. Bavington demonstrates the evolution of improvisation in pioneering music in this exhibition; the formal qualities of his trademark lines progressively disband and coalesce like the distortion pedal fuses the chord. As virtuoso Johnny Mercer sang, "…and so I come to you, my love, my heart above my head," Bavington illustrates creative footing between instinct and logic, spontaneity and structure – resulting in the simultaneous push and pull of the perceptible and signified. With a nod to his post-painterly abstraction forbearers, like Gene Davis and Kenneth Noland, Bavington distorts and short circuits his progressions to the point of ambient harmony; nearly Rothko-like in his ability to engender atmospheric swells and undulations in his canvases.
Concurrently, the gallery is thrilled to announce "Word Paintings," the gallery's first solo presentation of paintings from Russian painter, Feodor Voronov in the Project Room. Featuring a selection of new works, the exhibition will be an introduction to Voronov's manipulation of "operative formalism," and engagement with language.
Creating optical terrains that splinter and twist around the central image of an English word, Voronov investigates the nature of repetition in both form and language by painting harlequin patterns that are at once organic and methodical. His object-like compositions become an analysis of the human experience that borders on familiar, but is clearly unique. Voronov toys with the formal aesthetics of the written word, evaluating its psychological roots in symbolism á la Magritte, while also embellishing upon the innate habit of mark-making in the vein of Cy Twombly. He evaluates the nature of association, systemic social code, and inferred dissemination through a delicate equilibrium between precision and gesture – literally drawing a parallel between what is read and what is discerned. Meticulously uniform ball-point pen lines border broad, whimsical brush strokes and nebulous aerosol residue as Voronov coagulates elements of structure and impulse, method and inherence. Allowing for similar variance in meaning, connotation and suggestion, his paintings evolve and transmute with each encounter like the very nature of cultural discourse over time.
PROJECT ROOM:
Feodor Voronov "Word Paintings"
Opening: saturday, January 7th 6-8pm
Mark Moore Gallery
5790 Washington Blvd Culver City
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11-6, and by appointment daily
Admission free