BIG BRIGHT STEEL

Jennifer Riley

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In my work I use the basic elements of line, plane and ground to investigate concepts of painterly language. Painted freehand with intuitive color choices, the pattern, fracture, shifts and realignments recapture the dynamic movement that underlies everything from the ocean's floor to a modernist buildingMy longtime interest in classical art, architecture and atmosphere is filtered through the lessons of 20th and 21st century abstraction, pop abstraction, and contemporary figuration. I paint to consider the conceptual possibilities available to painting today and where it could go from here. There is a recognition of the history of story telling, myth, cultural lore and icons from differing centuries and continents and an understanding of how the past is comprehended and experienced in this moment. The work is not lampooning the scale and scope of the ocean, a volcano, a Roman myth- or an architectural style. Instead, I'm aware of the relational nature of these things and so, I recapture these elements as remembrances and forms that have been sidelined in our own culture as immediate and ironic. I re-engage with some of these dialogues by putting them back in play, to exalt beauty -- and as a celebration of aesthetic pleasure...