Meaningless and Sure
Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery, 3rd floor
Madison Public Library, Wisconsin
February and March 2017
We showed five pieces at MPL. The work high on the 3 walls in the foreground is the title piece, Meaningless and Sure. Four more pieces are in the background where the gallery height drops in half. We shared the gallery with a show of 3 abstract painters, Sam King, Ian Hagarty and Matthew Choberka. The space is curated by the Bubbler.
“Meaningless and sure” is how we think about abstract art.
We work on a piece until we're sure of it. Color, form, gesture, vibe enter into it. On a head, heart and gut level it's got to work. We shrug when asked for meaning and say, "Dunno, make up your own damned story!"
a gallery of Meaningless and Sure shots:
Jeremy Wineberg, Gravity Shifts
Meaningless and Sure came about because we just had to do something on that high 'letter' wall where the gallery name is spelled out. Another artist, Jeremy Wineberg, had used it as part of an amazing piece there a couple of years ago and we liked the effect.
the gallery has the feel of a church
You enter the gallery at one end into a space with a clerestory on one side. You walk toward that high wall from a long way back as you would toward an altar wall.
gallery view before our show, looking very stately
To keep that parallel from being too overt and to avoid a flat, movie theater screen look, we wrapped the piece onto the side walls.
The four works in the back are in what we dubbed the 'cave.'
The ideas for the ‘cave’ grew directly from the needs of the space. For instance, Making Art without the Upper Right is along the back wall. Any work hung there has to be pretty flat because of the foot traffic through the doors to either side. We figured what went there should emphasize the wall surface by meandering across it. The composition suggested the title, and the political climate suggested the wording. There's nothing in the upper right quadrant and yet the piece doesn't seem incomplete.
a gallery of shots of the 4 pieces in the 'cave':
colorfully clear abaca salad: Meaningless and Sure
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A view thru the nets at the rest of Meaningless and Sure