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Excerpts from a review by Wesley Pulkka Albuquerque Journal May 10, 2004 |
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Diane McGregor, Joyce Shupe and Don Vernay offer variations on abstract paintings
in the 21-piece “Flow” exhibition at Coleman Gallery Contemporary Art.
The trio work with a variety of materials to create richly surfaced combinations of ideas with consistent approaches to compositional structure. McGregor and Vernay arrange their canvases vertically while Shupe retains her signature horizontal format. McGregor, Shupe and Vernay are in a broad sense working within the constraints of art history. Their abstractions have precedents in stripe paintings by Kenneth Noland and Bridget Riley during the late 1960s as well as cubist works by Picasso and Braque near the beginning of the 20th century McGregor, who can easily be compared to Georgia O’Keeffe because of her integration of organic and geometric elements and use of an earthen palette, also is an independent and innovative artist. |
McGregor has a unique vision that combines sensuous fleshlike wave forms with
architectonic geometric structures that blend the worlds of thoughts and feelings.
In works like “Memory Trace” McGregor creates a dreamlike atmosphere of warm grays that juxtaposes soft vertical planes with ripples and rifts. Within the surreal poetically enveloped space structures dissolve into one another like the differing sensations of touch between hard and yielding surfaces. In “The Outer Sky” McGregor plays with our tradition of using horizontal lines to define the departure between land and sky. Her vertical composition and title demand that we look beyond Earth orientation to a broader universal perspective. Overall the exhibition represents innovation while fitting into the contemporary mainstream. McGregor offers the most refinement as well as the strongest links to classical painting. |
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