Red, Yellow and Orange
dal 11/11/2014 al 13/12/2014
Segnalato da
11/11/2014
Red, Yellow and Orange
Van Der Plas Gallery, New York
A three-person exhibit of abstract paintings by Ford Crull, Peggy Cyphers and Debra Drexler. Landscapes, figures and forms emerge and dissolve; sending messages from the unconscious, of spirituality and healing.
Van Der Plas Gallery is pleased to announce Red, Yellow and Orange: a three-person exhibit of abstract paintings by
Ford Crull, Peggy Cyphers and Debra Drexler. Landscapes, figures and forms emerge and dissolve; sending messages
from the unconscious, of spirituality and healing.
American painting has always had a long-standing preoccupation with
the sublime, defining the American character based on its relationship to the country’s wild, beautiful landscape. In New
York today, there is a Renaissance of abstract painting, as painters reinterpret and reinvent the paradigms that have
shaped the field. The work of Crull, Cyphers and Drexler represents the best of contemporary abstraction: which is
skilled and confident while demonstrating courage and invention. The contemporary sublime puts us in touch with what
is elementally human, by erasing personal boundaries and supplanting surety with uncertainty and awe. The work of
Crull, Cyphers and Drexler assert the primacy of painting by offering an unabashedly transcendent experience through
the medium of paint. Archetypes of shadow and light reveal themselves, red, yellow and orange reflected in the water of
life.
Ford Crull continues to explore the expressive power of personal and cultural symbols in a series of densely painted and
vividly colored compositions. “Ambiguity of the image forces the viewer into a more intensive study of the work, so that
the deeper layers of reality are unveiled...This is the real pleasure of my painting: to present a tableau of associations, an
unceasing unfolding of meanings, to offer a glimpse of a more universal state of consciousness, unbound by the
limitations of time and convention.”.
Ford Crull was raised in Seattle, where he graduated from the University of
Washington. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery, Dayton Art
Institute, and the Brooklyn Museum. His paintings were included in the important 1989 Moscow exhibition, “Painting
After the Death of Painting,” curated by Donald Kuspit. Recent exhibitions have included shows in Shanghai, London,
Milan, and Seattle.
Peggy Cyphers grew up in Baltimore and Chesapeake Beach, Maryland and has been inspired by the spectacular
Miocene fossil deposits, Calvert Cliffs and aquatic life of the Bay since childhood. Cyphers’ 30 solo and 180 group
exhibitions have been reviewed in New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Brooklyn Rail, Chicago Tribune, San
Francisco Chronicle, etc. Grants include National Endowment for the Arts, Peter S. Reed Foundation, Elizabeth
Foundation, National Studio Award PS.1, Pratt Institute. Residency awards include Yaddo, Art Omi, Tong Xian Art
Beijing, Santa Fe Art Institute, ISCP, Triangle & Clocktower/P.S.1. Cyphers’ inventive and combinatory approaches to
paint, silkscreen and sand have develop into pictures that explore the “politics of progress” as it impacts on cultural
evolution and the natural world. Spatial compositions defy gravity and orientation and envision transcendent spaces of
expansive consciousness while glorifying the naturalist’s direct encounter with water, sky, earth, and all creatures.
Debra Drexler translates the inner experience into outer form through a vigorous athletic painterly process. Drexler’s
large-scale canvases are imbued with light and color recalling the Hawaiian landscape. Drexler maintains studios in both
New York and Oahu, and her work is informed by her unique bi-coastal experience. Drexler has had 28 solo and over
100 group exhibits at galleries and museums in New York, Hawai’i, Australia, Berlin and across the states including
Honolulu Museum, Vanderbilt University and Maui Arts and Cultural Center. Recent New York solo exhibits include:
White Box’s Annex, Pool Art Fair, Chelsea Hotel Blue Mountain Gallery, HP Garcia Gallery and Java Studios Gallery.
In addition, Drexler has exhibited in group shows in New York including The Drawing Center, Denise Bibro Gallery,
Exit Art, Art Finance Partners, and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, and Sideshow Gallery. Reviews include Artweek, New
York Arts Magazine, and New Art Examiner. Debra Drexler is a Professor of Painting at the University of Hawai’i.
Image:Ford Crull, Red Sky at Night, 2014
Opening: Wednesday, November 12th, 6-9 pm
Van Der Plas Gallery
156 Orchard Street, New York, NY
Wednesday –Sunday 12:00 pm – 6:00pm and by appointment