CURTIS RIPLEY
A POEM ABOUT BREATHING
SURFACE AND LIGHT Santa Monica, CA - The William Turner Gallery is pleased to announce our upcoming solo exhibition, Gleason : Surface and Light. Jimi Gleason’s paintings are enigmatic. They emphasize seductive AJimi POEM ABOUT BREATHING surfaces, which reveal no trace of traditional paint application. These mysterious surfaces are highly Ripley’s reactive newest to light, abstractions position and are viewer - acting as catalysts for shiftingitself. perceptions. Theywith are Curtis sublime musings on expression Concerned immediately understandable as paintings, though it’s difficult to imagine how they were created. capturing those phenomena which are most difficult to describe with words, Ripley’s paintings are Throughand the use of non-traditional materials andemotion luminescent deposit, Gleason creates works gestural impromptu meditations on mood, and silver experience. that inspire an intimate reflection on the essence of how we perceive and experience the world around us. series, Ripley titles his paintings as “Sonnets” and “Sonatas”, directly referencing the In this new structures of music and poetry. Treating each painting as a spontaneous composition, Ripley’s Gleason’s most of work is consistent with the paintingsinhe has developed brushstrokes flickrecent acrossbody the subtle atmospheric grounds likeiridescent colorful syllables a poem or notes over the last decade, butmarks marksseem a radical departure Using a silver-deposit surface in a song. These lyrical to float on topinofexecution. the surface, glowing with energy. This coat, Gleason creates paintings that are ethereal and glassy sheets of solid vapor that respond interplay between surface imagery and atmospheric background is reminiscent of the works of and reactpainter, to the Joan play of lightwho, andlike their environment. Theseinnewest paintings are saturated with Surrealist Miro, Ripley, was interested the parallels between poetry, music brilliant colorsremarking - bright coppers, and glowing - adding more depth the and painting, that “I tryrich to ceruleans apply colors like words golds that shape poems, like notestothat already lustrous surfaces, which seem to emanate light from within. shape music.”
Uniting hard-edge geometric forms with his sensuously luminous surfaces, Gleason boldly breaks up the picture plane into alternating fields of texture. The effect is a hypnotic and prismatic visual structure, where light, color and form intersect in ever-changing play. These dynamic surfaces engage the viewerAmerican and urgecomposer them to explore the infinite experiential possibilities of comes art. The avant-garde (and contemporary of Miro) John Cage, also to mind when viewing Ripley’s rhapsodic paintings. Cage pioneered interdeterminacy - a movement in Born Beach,ofCA, Gleason received BAtofrom UC To Berkeley in ‘mistake’ 1985. Heisstudied musicininNewport which aspects a musical work are left his open chance. Cage, “a beside printmaking atonce the San Francisco Art Institute before is,” relocating Newphilosophy York City, where the point, for anything happens it authentically and thistosame couldhe beworked argued as photo assistant andrelinquishes photo technician. Returning to California, Gleason was in and the foraRipley’s work. Ripley the need for absolute control, embracing theemployed unforeseen studio of Ed Moses forafraid five years. Combining the disparate compositional unexpected. He is not to wipe out and begin again, histechnical paintingsand show the marks of skills their developed his smudges exposure and to printmaking, photography mixed-media painting, Gleason of is creation - during splatters, drips are allowed to live and on the surface, serving as markers now the subject considerable curatorial and criticalchronicle applause. His work is exhibited significant the artist’s path.of Ripley’s artistic pursuit is to visually those fleeting momentsinthat add up public institutions, including the Armand Museum, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the to a lifetime, inviting the viewer to join inHammer on the journey. Seattle Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art and the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation. The artist’s paintings actively collected by solo a growing number ofWilliam major public private collections This show marksare Curtis Ripley’s seventh exhibition with Turnerand Gallery. Curtis Ripley around theinworld. was born Lubbock, Texas in 1949. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Nightfall #3, 2015, oil on canvas, 60” x 72”
54th Street (Grid Fade), 2016, acrylic on canvas, 72” x 60”
The Lost Poem, 2016, oil on canvas, 60”x72”
The Night Air, 2016, oil on canvas, 72” x 48”
Avalanche, 2016, silver deposit and acrylic on canvas, 88� x 76�
Sonnet #1, oil on canvas, 72”x48”
A Poem About Breathing, 2016, oil on canvas, 72” x 48”
Sonnet #2, 2016, oil on canvas, 72” x 48”
The Theologian, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
Goodbye In Spanish, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
Untitled, silver deposit and acrylic on canvas, 18” x 18”
The Romantic, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
Nightfall #8, 2016, oil on canvas, 48”x72”,
Light of Day, 2015, oil on canvas, 30” x 72”
A Spring Evening, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
Nightfall #7, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
Nightfall #6, 2016, oil on canvas, 60” x 48”
The Wedge, 2016, Nocturne, silver deposit andoil on canvas, 30” x 53” California 2016, acrylic on canvas, 84” x 60”
The Wedge, 2016, silver deposit and acrylic on canvas, 84” x 60” Sonata #6, oil on canvas, 30”x24”
Sonata #11, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #9, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #8, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #12, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #14, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #13, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #10, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #15, oil on canvas, 30”x24”
Sonata #7, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”
Sonata #2, 2016, oil on canvas, 30” x 24”