Figures in Abstract Melinda Cootsona, Chris Gwaltney, Dennis Hare, Henry Jackson, Waldemar Mitrowski
Figures in Abstract: Melinda Cootsona, Chris Gwaltney, Dennis Hare, Henry Jackson and Waldemar Mitrowski
Figures in Abstract: Melinda Cootsona, Chris Gwaltney, Dennis Hare, Henry Jackson and Waldemar Mitrowski
Exhibition Dates: July 1 - July 30, 2014 Reception for the Artist: Friday, July 11, 6 to 8 pm Front Cover: Waldemar Mitrowski, Figure with Red Table, 94 x 70�, oil on canvas Back Cover: Dennis Hare, Reverence, 60 x 48�, oil and mixed media on canvas
Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 23 Sunnyside Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com
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Figures in Abstract: Melinda Cootsona, Chris Gwaltney, Dennis Hare, Henry Jackson and Waldemar Mitrowski
Nearly 60 years ago, the Bay Area Figurative movement freed the figure from the constraints of portraiture and illustration. The figure became a form to hold paint and the artist could use color, gesture, atmosphere and composition to explore new expressions. The paintings in this exhibition engage us in both the rich language of abstraction and in the mysteries of the human condition. The freshness of the work makes us hesitate to file it under any genre and yet the wonderful qualities that made Bay Area Figuration a valid movement in art history abound. Waldemar Mitrowski came to the US from Poland in the late 80’s and lived for a time in Bolinas. An exhibition in the east bay caught the attention of Charles Campbell and Mitrowski was included in a later exhibition in his North Beach gallery. Classically trained at the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow, Poland, Mitrowski is a virtuoso painter who can move from deeply guttural expressions to the most subtle and delicate renderings. Mitrowski has a European painting sensibility, employing techniques carefully learned and masterfully employed. The paintings are richly layered with surfaces that move from gritty and coarse to whisper smooth and translucent. Living in Poland now, Waldemar returned to the US this past year with the express intention of creating a body of works to leave in the US. Seager Gray took in the entire group and feel that it is among the finest work the artist has ever done. Large in scale, the paintings are powerful and masterfully realized. Chris Gwaltney has shown in the Bay Area since 1995 and is a favorite among collectors for his exuberant life-affirming canvases. Gwaltney’s figures are tall and his atmospheres tend to suggest the out of doors where no walls or ceilings contain them - so much so that often they extend beyond the boundaries of the canvas. He is a brilliant colorist employing daring and often improbable colors that he resolves within the creative process. Dennis Hare is no stranger to the Bay Area, having shown at Hackett-Freedman, Elins-Eagles-Smith and many other fine galleries in the area. Hare’s work is meaty, incorporating an uncanny ability to subtly convey gesture and mood while using an amazing amount of materials, merging oil painting with assemblage. Henry Jackson’s figures are often merely suggestions of the figure, so merged are they with the atmosphere around them. Their atoms and molecules expand like clouds whose forms are always changing. Jackson uses oil, cold wax and dried pigment in a medium perfected over many years, giving his work an unmistakable quality and palette. The works in the exhibition are all brand new, the artist having just repaired for a solo exhibition in Santa Fe. Melinda Cootsona might be considered the Intimiste of figurative abstraction. Her paintings are reminiscent of Bonnard and Vuillard in their depiction of private intimate moments in a personal life and world. They are abstracted portraits of everyday life. Her colors are soft and creamy with pleasing contrasts. Though her paintings often contain a single figure, the exhibition presents a new large work, Same Coin, with twin figures seated in a garden landscape merging contours of the land with the shapes of a human form.
Melinda Cootsona Same Coin oil on canvas, 48 x 46� 2014
Melinda Cootsona
Melinda Cootsona Between Pages oil on canvas, 42 x 36� 2014
Melinda Cootsona Pale in the Sun I oil on canvas, 16 x 16� 2014
Melinda Cootsona Pale in the Sun II oil on canvas, 16 x 16� 2014
Melinda Cootsona Pale in the Sun III oil on canvas, 16 x 16� 2014
Chris Gwaltney Spring oil on canvas, 48 x 60� 2014
Chris Gwaltney
Chris Gwaltney Just Now oil on linen, 17 x 10” 2014
Chris Gwaltney Today oil on linen, 17 x 10” 2014
Chris Gwaltney Crooked Path oil on canvas, 50 x 44� 2014
Dennis Hare Market Place oil and mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40� 2008
Dennis Hare
Dennis Hare Reverence oil and mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48� 2013
Dennis Hare Waiting oil and mixed media on canvas, 14 x 11� 2009
Dennis Hare Three Figures oil and mixed media on canvas, 20 x 16� 2013
Dennis Hare Family oil and mixed media on canvas, 14 x 11� 2014
Henry Jackson Untitled 60 oil and cold wax on canvas over panel, 30 x 28� 2014
Henry Jackson
Henry Jackson Untitled 107 oil and cold wax on canvas over panel, 58 x 48� 2014
Henry Jackson Untitled 33 oil and cold wax on canvas over panel, 12 x 12� 2014
Henry Jackson Untitled 34 oil and cold wax on canvas over panel, 12 x 12� 2014
Waldemar Mitrowski
Waldemar Mitrowski Figure with Red Table oil on canvas, 94 x 70� 2014
Waldemar Mitrowski Black Shoe oil on canvas, 73 x 54� 2014
Waldemar Mitrowski Observer oil on canvas, 21.2 x 21.5� 2014
(right) Waldemar Mitrowski The Future oil on canvas, 84 x 56� 2014