Interlude
- Vellum, gesso, casein, gouache, beeswax, plywood
, 2018
39.5 x 34
x 2 in
CALL FOR PRICE
![]() |
BORN
1962, Santa Monica, California
Lives and works in New York City
EDUCATION
1988
MFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
1986
BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples
2016
Lesley Heller, New York
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
2015
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin
2014
Giacomo Guidi, Rome
Drawing Room, Hamburgh
2009
Online Project Room, Dinter Fine Arts, New York
2008
Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
Galerie Meert-Rihoux, Brussels
Yvon Lambert, Paris
2007
ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills
Galerie Tschudi, Glarus
Lesley Heller, New York
2004
ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills
Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
2003
Kunst-Station, Sankt Peter, Köln (catalogue)
Geukens & De Vil, Knokke
2002
Galerie Tschudi, Glarus
Stark Gallery, New York
ACE Gallery, Los Angeles
2001
Boulder Museum of Art, Boulder
2000
Galerie Tschudi, Glarus
Galerie Frank, Paris
Galerie Cramer, Bonn
1999
Westenburg, Marfa
1998
Galerie Tschudi, Glarus
Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Trans Hudson, New York
Caledonian Hall, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
1996 AMO Gallery, Los Angeles
1994
Littlejohn/Sternau, New York
Fulcrum, New York
1993
Julian Pretto, New York (closing show)
Julian Pretto, New York
1992
Julian Pretto, New York
1990
Between Engagements, Anne Plumb, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
Beyond Black and White, Westbeth Gallery, New York
Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – Italy – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Reggia di Caserta, Caserta
2017
50 Years of Konrad Fischer Galerie 1967-2017, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Palacio Episcopal, Málaga
2016
Painting After Postmodernism: Belgium – USA, curated by Barbara Rose, Vanderborght & Cinema Galeries | The Underground, Brussels
2015
Melissa Kretschmer & Russell Maltz: Plywood, Minus Space, Brooklyn
Govern the Case: The Work in its Making From the Sixties to the Present, Pinacoteca Comunale, Città di Castello, Umbria
30 years, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz
2013
Julian Pretto Gallery, Minus Space, Brooklyn
2011
Personal Structures: Space - Time - Existence, Palazzo Bembo, Venice
2010
25 Years, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz
Anti Icon, Eaton Fine Art, Inc., West Palm Beach (catalogue)
2009
One Copenhagen, Stalke Up North, Copenhagen
From a Big Crash to a New Deal, 1000eventi, Milan
Turtle, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Assemblage Abstract, Dinter Fine Arts, New York
2008
One More, Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Köln
Winter Salon on Paper, Björn Ressle Fine Arts, New York
One More, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Esbjerg
2007
One, Björn Ressle Fine Arts, New York
Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel
21 Years, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs
Turtle, Nuäns Ausstellungsraum, Düsseldorf
Summertime, Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel
LeWitt X 2, Miami Art Museum, Miami
2006
LeWitt X 2, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison
It Takes a Lifetime, Paula Barr Chelsea, New York
Peep Show, Rule Gallery, Denver
Dedica: 1986-2006, Twenty Years of the Alfonso Artiaco Gallery, Palazzo della Arti Napoli, Naples
Small Works- Petit Formats, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Turtle, Chelsea Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel
Galeria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples
Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
2005
Glass, Seriously, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects, Long Island City
Galerie 1000eventi, Milan
2004
ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills
Election, American Fine Arts, New York
Armored, Planet Thailand, Brooklyn
Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz
2003
Minimalism and More: Contemporary Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Pepperdine University, Malibu
Selections from the LeWitt Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain
Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
2002
Ready-Made Color, Galerie Corinne Caminade, Paris (catalogue)
Ace Gallery, New York
Galerie Arnaud lefebvre, Paris
2001
Geukens & De Vil, Knokke
Gamel Fraser, Mendocino
2000
Rule Modern and Contemporary, Denver
Transparency, Translucency, Opacity, Galerie Frank, Paris
1999
Rule Modern and Contemporary, Denver
Transparent Façade, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles
Galerie Frank, Paris
1998
Voix, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Transparent Façade, The Work Space Gallery, New York
Foot Falls, Greenport, Long Island
Vision Festival, Orenzans Arts Center, New York
Art Miami '98, special projects installation, Miami Beach
1997
CIAP (Vereniging voor Actuele Kunst), Hasselt
Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica
Art Auction 6, Long Beach Museum, Long Beach
The Whole World in a Small Painting, II, Trans Hudson, New York
1996
Trans Hudson, Jersey City
Erik Satie, Robert Smithson, Melissa Kretschmer, Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris
Image/After Image, The Work Space Gallery, New York
Formal Abstraction, Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica
Recent Acquisitions: The Collection of Julian Pretto, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Epitaphs, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
In Small Dimensions, Andre Zarre, New York
1995
The Whole World in a Small Painting, Trans Hudson, Jersey City
Julian's Show II, Littlejohn/Sternau, New York
Material Abuse, Trans Hudson, Jersey City
1994
Faith, Fetish, Spirit, Westenburg, Great Barrington
Beyond Virtual, Back to Actual, Fulcrum, New York
New Recruits, In Collaboration, Santa Monica
Five Abstract Artists, Littlejohn/Sternau, New York
1993
BOMB magazine benefit exhibition, Fawbush, New York
Jours Transquilles à Clichy, Paolo Goyannes, Paris
Jours Transquilles à Clichy, TennisportArts, Long Island City
Silent Echoes, TennisportArts, Long Island City
Beyond Paint, Tibor de Nagy, New York
Works on Paper, Julian Pretto, New York
Contemporary Drawings, Part II, ARENA, New York
Inaugural Exhibition, TennisportArts, Long Island City
1992
ARENA, New York
Slow Art, PS1 Museum, Long Island City
Rumored Paintings, Anne Plumb, New York
Small Works, Julian Pretto, New York
1991
Constructed Black Paintings, Julian Pretto, New York
Abstract Painting: Process and Materials, Ben Shahn Gallery, Paterson College, Wayne
Surface Issues, Stephen Haller, New York
1990
New Talent, Julian Pretto, New York
1988
Out of Order, Anne Plumb, New York
EXCAVATIONS
My paintings exist at the crossroads of the sculptural and the painterly, where the interaction of the works’ elements enables them to exist both on a plane and in a space all at once. They are as much about the inside as they are about the surface and support. Layering and the building of sculptural relief-like structures have also been two consistent elements in my work. Together, process and materials are the means by which my work is generated and develops. I do not work from sketches or preliminary diagrams but allow the work to develop on it’s own, taking cues from the materials themselves.
More recently, I have introduced a new element of sawing and cutting. I generally begin with common plywood and build up various layers with overlapping sheets of vellum and washy gesso to achieve a delicate, translucent surface. Then I reverse the process by carving back into the work to reveal both the original wood surface and its interior edges. The resulting fissures generate new edges and surfaces to which I can apply beeswax or small amounts of gouache. These proportionately small amounts of applied color accentuate the natural colors of the wood, whether it is laid bare or veiled beneath a whitewashed surface. The carved lines also become another means of drawing, as does the overlapping edges of the collaged vellum, the occasional pencil line, and the raised edges of a taped painted line or field. I am interested in the interplay between very subtle, almost hidden subtleties and the coarseness of an excavated surface, like the experience of listening to Satie in the rush-hour madness of Union Square Station.
The impetus behind these works came from two thoughts that arose in my mind. First, if the edges of the works are so important why not put them in the center of the work? Second, given that the issues of surface and support have long been at the center of abstract painting, has anyone thought to address the inside of both? Surface has everything to do with what lies beneath it. It is shaped, colored and texturized by its physicality, whether thin or thick, visible or not. What happens on the surface begins deep within.
I see a relationship between photography and the development of images. Before the perceptual depth of the two-dimensional image can exist, there is the physical depth of the surface from which it emanates. The photographic image is utterly reliant upon light penetrating the surface and activating its interior.
I have never been fully satisfied with or convinced by the simple dichotomy of “surface and support”. I’ve always felt there was more, that the experience was potentially more complicated and full than that. There is a literal, physical depth to painting, one that inevitably enriches and accentuates a perceptual depth. Gertrude Stein is right: there is more there there.