"Tetra Scindo" by Jack Reilly
mixed media
Copyright © 2008 Jack Reilly. All rights reserved.
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"NEW PAINTINGS" by JACK REILLY
Solo Art Exhibit
Opening Date: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Closing Date: May 31, 2008
Artist Reception: Saturday, April 26, 2008, 6-9 pm
Location: Upfront Gallery, 267 S. Laurel Street, Ventura, CA 93001
Contact Paul Benavidez at 805-340-1448
Upfront Gallery is pleased to present New Paintings by Jack Reilly. For the past thirty years, Jack Reilly has continued to produce work that challenges traditional notions about abstraction and painting processes. As one of the foremost American artists working with shaped canvas, Reilly has not lost sight of his affinity for purity and simplicity in painting, albeit shrouded in complex visual systems and laborious technique. In the late 1970s, Reilly abandoned the notion that the basic square or rectangle was a sufficient structure on which to create a painting. He believed the window-like connotations of the traditional canvas to be antiquated and far too indebted to the tradition of Western European art, with all of its connotations and limitations -- decisively not suitable for the visual impact and the physical structure of the paintings Reilly needed to produce.
The "New Abstraction" series is the quintessential example of Reillyıs attention to structure and detail combined with elements of randomness and serendipity. Each painting consists of thousands of brushstrokes, painted in acrylic polymers and metallic pigments on a shaped-canvas structure, which is based on mathematical and random geometric designs. Color compositions are emotional, intuitive and theoretical systems arranged in linear formats that interact with the shape of the canvas. Reilly's "cadenced" signature brushwork, which originated in his early abstract paintings, has been compared to the visual complexity and visceral quality of Byzantine mosaics.
The rich viscosity of Reilly's paint mixture/concoction results in fluid, wet-looking and reflective surfaces. It could be said that these new paintings pay a playful homage to nineteenth-century Pointillism (without including any actual subject matter). However, upon closer investigation, it is clear that these densely-polychromed works are an evolution of Reilly's earlier geometric canvases, incorporating a cross-pollination of painting and sculpture. The work reappraises and comments on evolving issues that originated in modern abstract painting and continues into today's contemporary genres. Ultimately, these pieces are poetic objects of contemplation and a continuation of Reilly's explorations into the sensuality of color, luster and surface combined with the dynamic power of line and structure.
Jack Reilly received an MFA from Florida State University in 1978. He debuted his paintings in Los Angeles in 1979 in a one-person exhibition at the Molly Barnes Gallery. By the early 1980s, his work was exhibited in museums and represented by galleries throughout the United States, including Arron Berman Gallery in New York, Foster Goldstrom Fine Arts in San Francisco, Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles and many others. Articles and reviews on Reillyıs work have been published in Arts Magazine, Artweek, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine and in books including American Art Now and Inside the L.A. Artist. Reilly is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and numerous other awards for his paintings. His work is included in major public and private collections internationally including the Steve Martin Collection, the Fredrick Weisman Foundation, the County of San Diego Public Arts Program, American Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport and numerous museums. His paintings are regularly exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide and throughout the world. He is currently Chair of the Art Department and Professor of Art at California State University Channel Islands.
Gallery hours are by appointment. Upfront Gallery is an alternative art venue located in downtown Ventura at 267 South Laurel Street between Front Street and E. Thompson Blvd. For more details, please contact the gallery at 805-340-1448, or, 805-405-4954
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