Non-Fiction Paintings, the artist's first solo museum exhibition. The exhibition features twenty-two paintings created over the past eight years that reveal this New York artist's wit, playfulness and subtly twisted reality. This thorough survey celebrates Knox's work as an outstanding example of the painting revival in American Art.
"Non-Fiction Paintings"
The University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, is
pleased to present Bob Knox: Non-Fiction Paintings, the artist's first solo
museum exhibition. The exhibition features twenty-two paintings created over
the past eight years that reveal this New York artist's wit, playfulness and
subtly twisted reality. This thorough survey celebrates Knox's work as an
outstanding example of the painting revival in American Art.
The familiar glare of nighttime photography. Seen from a distance, his
canvases appear lushly illusory. Up close, his thinly applied stains of
color seem at once distant and revelatory. With precision and perfection in
his use of reflective light and composition, he deftly explores the
intersection of surface and depth. The paintings revel in ambiguity,
uncertainty, and mystery, making them harder to categorize than they first
appear. His relationship to realism is constantly in flux as he purposely
upsets the rules of the game and playfully diverts from the ordinary.
Characterizing his recent work as 'non-fiction painting,' Knox positions
himself as mediator in the dialogue between painting and photography by
transcribing photographic images onto large-scale canvases. His subject
matter encompasses a wide range of topics that touch on our notions of taste
and culture. Compositional manipulation of photographic light, color, and
space is key to Knox's creative approach, and his found images provide him
with endless opportunities. Knox continuously transforms the geometry of
space from the domestic toward the panoramic. Ranging from brightly colored
interiors to semi-abstract compositions of blurred lights against a night
sky, his paintings toy with reality while maintaining strong ties to
conventional realism.
Bob Knox: Non-Fiction Paintings was co-organized by the University Art
Museum, and Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays
by Terrie Sultan, Director, Blaffer Gallery, and Mary-Kay Lombino, Curator
of Exhibitions, University Art Museum, California State University Long
Beach.
This exhibition is partially sponsored by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham
Foundation, Wesley G. Hampton, The Texas Commission on the Arts, and Amie
Knox and Jim Kelley. Jack Shainman and the staff at Jack Shainman Gallery,
New York, provided essential assistance throughout the project. The UAM, a
division of the College of the Arts, receives funding from The Getty Grant
Program and The Instructionally Related Activities Fund. Educational
programming is provided, in part, by the California Arts Council and The
Bess J. Hodges Foundation.
Image: Bob Knox, 'Blue Poles', 2001, a/c, 72 x 132'
EVENTS:
Bob Knox Gallery Talk | October 30 | 6:30 pm. Call gallery for confirmation
of date and times
UAM @ noon: Tuesday, November 18 | 12:15 - 1:00pm, Gallery Talk by Mary-Kay
Lombino
Reception: October 30, 5-7 PM
All events are open to the public and free of charge, donation requested.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 12-5pm; Thursday, 12Â8 PM; Saturday, Sunday, 11
AMÂ4 PM, closed Monday and all University holidays
DIRECTIONS:
From the 405, 605, and 22 Freeways, exit 7th Street/22 West. Turn right on
Bellflower Boulevard and right on State University Drive. Turn left on
Merriam Way. Metered parking is available on the right in Lot 17. Permits
are required for all other areas and can be purchased at the yellow
dispensers located in the parking structure and throughout the parking lots.
The University Art Museum is located in the Steve & Nini Horn Center on the
campus of California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840
Contact: Sarah G. Vinci, Community Relations Coordinator, (562) 985-4299 /
562.985.5761, Fax 562.985.7602