Exhibition Dates: October 1 – October 29, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 1 from 6–9 pm, in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake
Gallery Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; arthurrogergallery.com
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present Almost Eudaimonia, an exhibition of paintings by Holton Rower. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger Gallery, located at 432 Julia Street, from October 1 – October 29, 2016. The gallery will host an opening on Saturday, October 1 from 6-9 pm in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake.
Untitled (HROW 0090), 2016 | Paint on plywood
72 1/4 x 45 1/2 inches
Almost Eudaimonia is Holton Rower’s third exhibition with the gallery and includes his remarkable “cut-away paintings” – highly dimensional works which blur the line between painting and sculpture. Rower has perfected a technique of layering paint onto plywood before carving it away to reveal undulating, amorphous mounds, which collectively are reminiscent of psychedelic, topographic maps.
Rower has been referred to as a “chemist and sculptor of paint” and is renowned for the incredible color combinations he achieves. His “highly premeditated” process results in concentric waves of vibrant colors rising to rounded peaks or solid plateaus. The profound extensity of the work produces a cooperative performance with the viewer – intrigue invites exploration, just as land summons surveyor. One considerable work, measuring 8 feet by 11 feet, significantly demonstrates this interaction with its spiraling, vortex-like composition.
In a new, evolved series of six-foot tall paintings, the plateaus are accentuated by solid swatches of color, often black, with a sandy texture that counters the almost polished smoothness of the masses below. Some are intersected by large ‘X’s, formed by the contrast between few and many layers of color. Other works included in the exhibition are medium-scale paintings reminiscent of hypersensitive heat maps interrupted by vividly colored inlets. These works are less dimensional, almost as though they have been sanded back, but equally as stimulating.
Holton Rower was born in Greenwich Village in 1962, the grandson of artist Alexander Calder. He has exhibited in New York at The Pace Gallery, John McWhinnie and The Hole, as well as internationally including England, France, Spain, and Switzerland. He currently lives in Brooklyn Heights and has a studio in lower Manhattan.