Three Artists: Julie Mehretu, Wayne Gonzales, Julian Lethbridge
February 3 - April 2, 2011Statement
Three Artists: Julie Mehretu, Julian Lethbridge, and Wayne Gonzales
February 3 – April 2, 2011
John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition featuring work by Julie Mehretu, Julian Lethbridge, and Wayne Gonzales on view from February 3 to March 5, 2011. A preview will be held on Thursday, February 3rd from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Working from an archive of map clippings, newspapers, and banal outlines to elaborate city plans, and diagrams of war and historical destruction, Julie Mehretu’s paintings and prints attempt to make sense of what happens when these designs interact. Mehretu abstracts these organizational tools while abridging their histories to create new narratives that she describes as “story maps of no location.” With a cacophonous overlay of markings, her work captures and concentrates the dynamism and fluidity of various times and places.
Wayne Gonzales works between representation and abstraction, accumulating images from the internet and recasting them with a painter’s hand. Gonzales’ low-resolution, grey-scale paintings disrupt preconceived notions and permitting the viewer to develop their own interpretation of an image.
Employing luminous oil paints and pigment sticks, Julian Lethbridge builds up the canvas layer upon layer, creating rich, textural, and rhythmic images. Using a grid or other rough template, Lethbridge creates underlying system of stability on which he can make gestural strokes. The sequence of more varied forms demonstrates the artist’s interest in the repetition and inherent beauty of natural phenomena. The result is a meditative observation, both on the modernist grid and the organic interplay of surface, color, and depth.
For further information and photographs, please contact the gallery at 415.781.4629 or info@berggruen.com. The gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 9:30-5:30, and Saturday, 10:30-5:00.
Artists
Wayne Gonzales
Julian Lethbridge
Julie Mehretu
Exhibition Works
Julie Mehretu Auguries, 2010 12-panel aquatint with spit bite (from 48 plates) 87 x 180 inches
Julie Mehretu Okemos (Quartet C), 2008 Graphite, watercolor and ink on paper, 4 drawings 22 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches each
Julie Mehretu Runway, 2010 Graphite on Rives paper 22 x 30 inches
Wayne Gonzales Untitled, 2009 Acrylic on canvas 84 x84 inches
Wayne Gonzales Untitled, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 56 x56 inches
Wayne Gonzales Waiting Crowd, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 84 x 84 inches
Julian Lethbridge Untitled, 2010 Oil and pigment stick in medium on linen 36 x 30 inches
Julian Lethbridge Untitled, 2010 Oil and pigment stick in medium on linen 36 x 30 inches
Julian Lethbridge NYT, 2010 Oil and paint stick on canvas 70 x 56 inches
Julian Lethbridge Gutenberg, 2007 Oil and pigment stick on linen 72 x 60 inches
Julian Lethbridge Noon 1, 2010 Oil, pigment stick, and pigment stick medium on linen 48 x 35 inches