ALEXANDER ROSS: Recent Paintings

David Nolan Gallery is proud to announce Alexander Ross: Recent Paintings, May 6 through June 25, 2011, with an opening reception on Friday, May 6 from 6-8 pm. An entirely new body of work, Recent Paintings will feature eight paintings and a selection of works in oil on paper.

Alexander Ross lives and works in New York, where his studio serves as a sort of laboratory where the natural and artistic worlds collide. His process is experimental, but essentially simple. Each work begins with a model in plasticene, taking inspiration from specimens found in nature such as plants and rocks. After photographing the models and manipulating the resulting images in Photoshop, he then paints these newly altered and digitized versions of reality.

Recently, Ross has become inspired by the tradition of painting en plein air (“in the open air”). This new interest has expanded his practice in the studio to evoke the spontaneity and romance of recreating nature as if he were standing in the midst of it outdoors. For the first time, realistic landscapes appear in his paintings as though we are experiencing the images from an airplane or an overlooking mountain. The color of the skies in his hyper-real worlds fades from a deep to light blue as we approach the horizon, just as it does in reality. Yet, this combined effect embraces notions of virtuality, spanning from contemporary images present in Google Maps to the iconic skies found in the works of surrealist painters. We never stray far from artifice and the ersatz in Ross’s paintings; the light and colors of these works on view in Recent Paintings are more vibrant but still have the flat graphic quality that is the artist’s signature.

Born in Denver, Colorado in 1960, Alexander Ross earned his B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art in 1983. He was been awarded the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2004 and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2003. His works have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide since the mid 1990s. In 2005, he was honored with a solo show at The Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis that surveyed the previous eight years of his work. In 2006 he was part of a group show entitled Remote Viewing at the Whitney Museum of American Art, propelling his name into the international spotlight. In 2004 he was selected by Yale School of Art Dean and noted art historian Robert Storr to participate in SITE Santa Fe. He has also showed at The Columbus Museum of Art, OH; The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, NY; SEAD Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium; The American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City. Currently, the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO is displaying a recently acquired painting in its new wing, the Bloch Building.

A 44 paged, full color exhibition catalog will accompany the exhibition, featuring an illuminating text by Alexander Ross that gives a rare glimpse into the artist’s inspirations and studio practice.

In connection with New York Gallery Week, we are also excited to announce a performance by Black Lake on May 7th at 5 pm. Black Lake is an art/music duo comprised of Susan Jennings and Slink Moss. Their performances combine projected video art, original music and lyrics, sounds, movement, spoken word, sculpture, collage, hand-made instruments, drums, and shadows in a unique live performance. They have a vinyl LP entitled "Netherzone" coming out on Right Brain Words this summer. For more information, please visit www.newyorkgalleryweek.com.