Viewers will be left in awe during a solo exhibition of large-scale works by a painter who uses only a series of palette knifes. Once you step into his creative world, it’s hard to get out!
EVOKE Contemporary gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is proud to host a major solo exhibition of new works by renowned painter Lynn Boggess. Apart from conveying an incredible eye for color and shadow, the works of Boggess have a stunning degree of texture — created through the use of his primary tool: the palette knife.
Via the gallery: “Lynn Boggess’ subjects reflect the diverse nature of West Virginia and its flora. Boggess draws the viewer into the deeply receding spaces of his images. The pictures, devoid of human or animal habitation, focus on Nature, free of the influence of human activity. Boggess compels the viewer to contemplate each scene in turn, and finally the cycle of scenes: the lapse of hours; the alternating character of the rocks, of the trees and of the land; the turn of season. The paintings themselves become the spaces they portray.
“In many large and small ways, Boggess’ paintings reflect the entire tradition of landscape painting. When asked what major influences or past movements might have left their imprint, Boggess says that whatever images he might be studying at the time provide the nexus for his own work. Indeed, the viewers will find suggestions of the Romantics, the Luminists, the Impressionists, and the Expressionists. Yet, the artist does not set out to make his works conform to a preconceived style; rather, he melds the tradition and his own experience into a way of seeing and a style in landscape painting which is uniquely his own.
“Stylistically reflective of European and American landscape painting, Boggess’ work transcends the pitfall of betraying his predecessors and forges, in its place, an art of resolution and contemplation. Nature has been acknowledged in his work and accepted for what it has to offer in the way of healing and beauty. That last concept — beauty — is a loaded word in an age of art which often gives us truth with all its flaws and warts, or with the sophistication of irony, which is all-too-often uncomfortable with the idea that beauty is definable, desirable, or even necessary.
“Boggess’ work cuts through such specious queries to a plainer truth: that beauty simply is — an unavoidable irrefutable fact of the natural world. In their unhedging presentation of this fact, Boggess’ paintings offer solace and respite, even to the most casual of viewers, just as do the original locations in Nature which were his impetus.”
Works by Lynn Boggess will be on view at EVOKE through March 25. To learn more, visit EVOKE Contemporary.
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