Universal Journey LeRone Wilson
EXHIBITION: JANUARY 14, 2016-MARCH 6, 2016
Lerone Wilson: Concept and Craft Christopher Stackhouse Formalist art expresses its power to the extent it shows a relationship to the naturally occurring physical world. We might say that such art intervenes, or, sensually interprets the mechanics of earth and the universe which holds our planet in its orbit. The primary content of this work is creation itself. For the experienced artisan the process of extracting material elements from his environment, which tangibly attest to his spiritual and intellectual concerns, is where connoisseurship begins. Lerone Wilson’s choice use of beeswax and mineral pigments frame his painting vocabulary. There are alignments with minimalist/post-minimalist art. Eva Hesse’s use of latex, or Donald Judd’s use of industrial products, plywood, brushed aluminum and acrylic sheeting, are comparable to Wilson’s obsession with wax. These materials articulate their phenomenological presence, further so iterated by human hand and technological intervention. The harvesting of pigments (from plant, rock, blood and body parts of animals) for the purposes of communication is as old as the earliest attempts at written pictorial and alphabetical language. Wilson’s project predates art history, looking back to the Ancient Egyptian enterprise of bee-keeping. One of the sources of Wilson’s object-forms is the honeycomb (the coral reef also provides an analogue for his identification with natural production from flora and fauna.)
The Egyptians were interested in the honey produced by bees as a delicacy. For among other things, they used honey to produce the coveted fermented beverage mead. The brick-andmortar of the bees’ home and storage facility is the wax that they produce. The Ancients often used wax covered wooden tablets for writing. Wilson is attentive to other aspects of the perennial relationship between human beings and bees, particularly the life cycles inherent to one of the insect’s primary activities, the transfer of pollen. Pollination is essential to our food production. This system of fertilization and reproduction, decomposition and new growth provides a similitude to measure the mysteries and necessities of Wilson’s art. Each of these works present self-contained representations of Wilson’s conceptual and metaphysical concerns, as well his consistent appraisal of craftsmanship. The deep black pigment in the tondo Divine Circle (2015) is at once allusive to the unknown quantity of God or the spirit world. The surface treatment of the color simultaneously allows it to absorb and reflect light, while the rhythmic intervals of shadow signify even deeper darker, blacker, space, beyond the perceivable surface. Universal Journey(2015) is a painting, a wall drawing (a line drawing), and a subtle relief, all in one. It is a diptych that portrays two paths, rendered in lighter and darker grays, as unified on a singular cyclical path. The rectilineal shape and soft turns at the angles of the form iterate the ‘journey’ and ‘return’. Its open center spells a provocative void, a space to fill with inquiry.
Writer and artist Christopher Stackhouse, a frequent Visiting Critic at the Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, is also an adjunct professor in the Curatorial Practice MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Homage to Ra (Sun) Encaustic on Panel Diameter: 36 in | 91.4 cm
The Footsteps of my Ancestor’s Harkhuf Encaustic on Panel 39 x 39 in | 99.1 x 99.1 cm
Salvation Encaustic on panel 47 x 51 in | 119.4 x 129.54 cm
Celestial Forest Encaustic on panel 19 x 31 x 17 in | 48.3 x 78.7 x 43.18 cm
Feather of Maat Encaustic on panel 44 x 8 x 6 in | 111.8 x 20.3 x 15.2 cm
Yellow #2 Encaustic on panel 16 x 15 in | 40.6 x 38.1 cm
Red #2 Encaustic on panel 16 x 15 in | 40.6 x 38.1 cm
Stone Circle Encaustic on panel Diameter: 44 in | 111.8 cm
Stars Rained On Me Encaustic on panel 31 1/2 x 81 in | 80 x 205.7 cm
Universal Journey Encaustic on panel 24 x 48 in | 61 x 121.9 cm
Divine Circle Encaustic on panel Diameter: 36 in | 91.4 cm
Victory #2 Encaustic on panel 61 x 61 in | 154.9 x 154.9 cm
Masses Encaustic on panel 64 x 64 in| 162.6 x 162.6 cm
Distinction Between One Color Encaustic on panel 27 x 47 in | 68.6 x 119.4 cm
From Beyond Encaustic on panel 36 x 6 x 9 1/2 in | 91.4 x 15.2 x 24.1 cm
Yah Encaustic on panel 38 x 38 in | 96.5 x 96.5 cm
Additional Works
Blue #2 Encaustic on panel 16 x 15 in | 40.6 x 38.1 cm
Resting in Green Pastures Encaustic on panel 22 x 22 x 2.5 in | 55.9 x 55.9 x 6.4 cm
Eternal Passage Encaustic on panel 24 x 24 in | 61 x 61 cm
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