Work by Brent Hallard

November 12 – December 19, 2009

An international, visual conversation between abstract painters; a traveling, transformable series of shows.

Exhibiting artists – Kasarian Dane, Stephan Fritsch, Brent Hallard, Leonhard Hurzlmeier, Robin McDonnell, Mel Prest, Richard Schur, Nancy White, John Zurier

Meridian Gallery is pleased to present TRANS: form | color the San Francisco manifestation of a series of international traveling shows by nine artists from Japan, Germany and the United States who are engaged in a dialogue about Painting and Abstraction.

Begun as an in-person and online conversation between Richard Schur in Munich, Mel Prest in San Francisco and Brent Hallard in Tokyo, TRANS has grown into an exhibition with nine artists. Three of the artists hail from Germany, four artists live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, one in upstate New York and one lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Working both internationally and in a variety of approaches to Abstraction, the artists have created this show as a visual dialogue between themselves and as a means to join today’s contemporary painting dialogue.

The show poses questions of cultural/aesthetic difference, as well as, the ways that the works align both formally and conceptually, with a range of abstraction spanning hard-edge, optical, minimal, expressive and conceptual. An aspect of the artists’ continuing dialogue is the installation of TRANS: form | color, which is done onsite by the artists together. This convergence of approach and locale creates a dynamic and timely exhibition.

Each of the artists work with optically engaging abstraction whose roots lie in different twentieth century trajectories, yet the work is very much of the twenty first century, with its awareness of history as well as conceptual concerns and aesthetics of contemporary painting.

“…These painters, calling themselves TRANS, meeting in person or on the Internet, found that they share a common interest in the painting process, pure, and often not so simple. Unlike previous groups, they share no common ideology and they certainly are not likely to publish a manifesto. And they all agree that it is the viewer’s response, which completes the work…”
—Peter Selz

TRANS:Abstraktion opened in November 2007 at Weltraum, a non-profit gallery space in Munich, Germany. In March 2009 TRANS:formal traveled to Pharmaka, a non-profit space in Los Angeles. Each show includes new work by each artist –thus keeping a fresh and ongoing dialogue. TRANS: form | color at Meridian Gallery will be the first time all artists will be present at the exhibition.

Catalogue available, with notes on TRANS: form | color by Peter Selz.

Installation view

October 16 – November 20, 2009

The exhibition features the painting Untitled (Original Six: Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, New York), which is a tribute to the original six National Hockey League teams: The Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, and New York Rangers. The colors of the paintings are drawn from these teams’ traditional colors and the installation consists of six 48 x 72 inch panels. Presented in one uninterrupted line, the work makes a bold visual statement, while referencing the strong history of color used by these six hockey teams.

Kasarian Dane has shown his paintings nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, London, and San Juan. He currently lives and works in upstate New York where he teaches painting at St. Lawrence University.

Read the complete interview

Brent Hallard: You have been working on areas of color; vertical or horizontal bands of either matte paint or gloss paint with sometimes both present in the one painting at the same time. The structure between two areas of color, you couldn’t really call it a line, though, well, in the material – a space where something stops and then something starts.

You have used aluminum supports for some time now. They sit well, both functioning as unadorned surface where paint can just glide over, and as a sheer and clean plane on which to see the color, the paint.

What brought you to use these supports? Do you do all the preparation yourself? If so could you tell what that entails to get something to sit on the wall, for paint to sit upon the support?

Kasarian Dane: I’ve been using aluminum since about 1996 or so. I discovered it as a painting support in graduate school at The Art Institute of Chicago. I was making these fairly reductive paintings on canvas and was really struggling with what to do with the sides of the canvas: do I paint the edges of the canvas? Do I tape the sides so they stay clean? Are the sides of the canvas with the paint build up an important index of the process or a distraction from what’s happening on the surface plane? How thick or thin should I make the stretcher? I tried a lot of different ideas with this, thick stretchers, thin stretchers, etc. and it was not satisfying. The sides of the canvas were always another plane to deal with in relationship to the surface plane, and I was just not interested in making paintings on the sides of my paintings…

Works by Leo Hurzlmeir, Richard Schur & Brent Hallard (l to r)

March 12 – May 2, 2009

Exhibiting artists: Kasarian Dane, Stephan Fritsch, Brent Hallard, Leo Hurzlmeir, Robin McDonnell, Mel Prest, Richard Schur, Nancy White, John Zurier 


Pharmaka is pleased to present “TRANS:formal” the Los Angeles manifestation in a series of traveling shows by nine artists from Germany, Japan and the United States who are all engaged in a dialogue about Abstraction in painting.

Working both internationally and in a variety of approaches to Abstraction, the artists have created this show as a dialogue between themselves and as a means to engage the viewer in this conversation.

The show poses questions of cultural/aesthetic difference as well as the ways that the works align formally and conceptually. This convergence of approach and locale creates a dynamic, timely exhibition.

Begun as a conversation between an artist living in Munich and another in San Francisco, this dialogue has evolved into a show of nine artists. Three of the artists live in Munich, Germany, one lives in Tokyo, Japan, four live in the San Francisco bay area, one in upstate New York.

The show first opened in Munich, Germany as TRANS: Abstraktion at Weltraum gallery in November 2007, and in November 2009 it will travel to San Francisco to the Meridian Gallery. Each show will have new work by each of the artists thus keeping a fresh and ongoing dialogue. The show provides a location for the artists to come together and converse. Many of the artists will be engaging in the artists talk at Pharmaka on March 14.

Each of the artists work with optically engaging abstraction whose roots lie in different twentieth century trajectories, yet the work is very much of the twenty first century with its awareness of history as well as the conceptual concerns and aesthetics of contemporary painting.

Kasarian Dane uses highly colorful hard-edge painting to push a perception of the reductive. His vertical strips of color jerk and cajole the edges of the eye. In an elegantly calibrated and vibrant space, it appears nothing else is there: nothing else is needed. Born 1972 in Duluth, Minnesota; lives in upstate New York.

Stephan Fritsch is equally at home on and off the canvas. Referencing aspects of gestural painting, graffiti and architecture, he builds complex canvases and installations. His color instances, discovered in daily encounters, mingle with brushstrokes and create images that evoke unexpected and fresh associations. Born 1962 in Stuttgart, Germany; lives in Munich.

Brent Hallard’s work is full of contradictions: quirky and conventional, jarring and elegant, humorous and refined. Using plastics, vinyl, aluminum, painted tape and templates, he often imbues a singular minimalist shape with multi-possibilities, pushing a perceptual vision into a realm of irreconcilable illusion. Born in 1962 in Sydney, Australia; lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Leo Hurzlmeir’s paintings move between motifs of abstraction to figuration and narrative and are engaged in the materiality of paint itself. Within this realm of play, his work undergoes a highly personal process of abstraction that is always left open to associative readings. Born 1983 in Starnberg, Germany; lives in Munich

Robin McDonnell uses an abstract ‘process’ driven language to create a complex field of activity in her paintings. The intention is to create an opticality that is both engaging and immersive to the viewer without providing resolutions or answers, thus creating an open ended visual experience. Born 1955 in New York, NY; lives in Berkeley, California.

Mel Prest’s conceptual color drawings transform language into color and shape. With a systematic but open process, words derived from pop culture, the urban, and the everyday produce a precarious architectural space. In her paintings a dissonant palette of hand-painted lines evoke the optical effect of collapsing space creating perceptual puzzles. Born in 1969 in Saint Paul, Minnesota; lives in San Francisco, California.

Richard Schur combines rigorous visual enquiry with a knowing playfulness where amalgamations of marks break the dominance of the geometric. With a systematic and sensuous use of color, space in Schur’s paintings is both elusive and palpable.. Born 1971 in Munich, Germany; lives in Munich 
 


Nancy White orders geometric shapes with precision to intensify the instabilities of visual acuity. On hand pigmented grounds after-images emerge; forms can appear simultaneously flat and three-dimensional. Her frame paintings create an amplification of light and color. Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1947; lives in Redwood City, California.

John Zurier is highly attuned to and carefully considers the intrinsic characteristics of all his materials. His brushwork can be simultaneously expansive and restricted, formal and informal, lush and austere and always compels a closer, slower and longer look. In all his work an ethereal quality is evoked revealing the experience of seeing as something difficult and real. Born in Santa Monica, California in 1956; lives in Berkeley, California.

October 17 — December 14, 2007