Andrew Fearnside:  The Desert
Gail Gering:  The Fires And The Floods
Exhibition Dates:           April 9-June 18, 2016
Exhibition Reception:    Friday, April 8, 5:30-7:30
Gallery Hours:               Saturdays 11-5 and by appointment

Andrew is presenting 12 paintings in acrylic, plaster and ink on panel. Gail will be presenting a collection of over 20 small multimedia images made in metal, text and paint. Both collections offer responses to the ongoing process global climate change

Page Coleman Gallery
6320-B Linn Avenue NE     Albuquerque, NM 87108
505-238-5071
http://www.pagecoleman.com
pagecoleman@comcast.net

A statement from Andrew on The Desert

Golgotha, “the place of the skull,” is the hill outside old Jerusalem where Jesus died. It is a geographical location, and it is a place inside the Christian imagination; a place of suffering, of reckoning, and a place of endless light. Last April, I connected with the light of an interior Golgotha in my sketchbook.  Over the course of the year I began to see its light in the New Mexico landscape. Painting nourished it by making a space where I could move outwards and inwards simultaneously. Through painting I discovered more of the vocabulary of this world–the falling bottles, the dessicated thorns, the sinuous clouds. Here, inside/outside, I found an alchemy between burning light and bitter darkness that helps me remember.

The Process:

These paintings began with heavy-handed thumbnails of a desert where crows circle above crosses growing from dry hills. These lay fallow for months, coming to life this past summer with a series of paintings of mythic mesas. I began drawing from these seeds, exploring variations and permutations, until I’d discovered a vocabulary of line, space, contrast, shape and feeling. I then began painting. Working on 4-8 panels at a time, I built an intuitive texture-drawing. Then through underpainting I continued the exploration begun in the drawings, finding forms and images, still working on the whole group as a suite. Lastly, I sharpened form through color. Each part of the process revealed more of the story.

And the story is about the good news of impermanence, hidden in the bad news of climate change. It’s about a pilgrimmage in an inner desert through which faith is found and cultivated. Where desire scorches until it burns itself out, leaving gravestones and an ineffable light. 

A statement from Gail:

Climate change is one of the most contentious issues of our time, and is marked by denial and ignorance. I have done the research, but present it only as the undertone of etched and colored pieces.

This is not in-your-face activism, but rather a subtle view with the artistic value of the pieces placed above the message, which is  portrayed by background text, and color.

In the example below, the format I have chosen for all the work is shown. The etched metal is backed by a two-inch thick piece of Jelutong, a pine-like wood from Southeast Asia.

In “Fire-Scarred Landscape,” below, the background is etched nickel and contains information about recent drought and fires, followed by the Godzilla El Nino this year. The foreground is a copper etching with the resist present plus added orange and rust patinas. 

Even more on Andrew Fearnside Fine Art:
Wordpress Blog: http://andrewfearnside.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrewfearnsideart
Instagram: http://instagram.com/atfearnside/
atfearnside@gmail.com

Even more on Gail Gering Fine Art:
Gail Gering Fine Art
http://www.gailgering.com/
geringstudio@gmail.com

An enormous thank you to Page Coleman for her trust, vision, determination and curation of this show.