OHT Gallery Boston

Previous Exhibits

New Paintings

Wendy Edwards

September 10 - October 2, 2004
Reception: Friday, September 10, 5:30-7:30pm

O·H+T gallery is pleased to open its fall schedule with an exhibition of new paintings by Wendy Edwards.

Wendy Edwards' colorful, meditative paintings range in size from small (14" x 14") to very large (80" x 72"). Sharing common imagery, they depict net-like grids of paint floating over painterly swaths of color. The meticulously applied lines of the grids are extruded from a homemade pastry bag to create undulating, multicolored patterns. Though they intersect to form vague rectangles, these lines are fluid and gestural, reminiscent of calligraphic writing. The more loosely painted areas are applied with a rag or large brush in a single color, and they seem to occupy a space below these webs. In the smaller works where the mesh is similar in scale to the background, there is a sense of two fields, one superimposed on the other. A figure-ground effect characterizes the larger paintings where the grid seems to float above a swirling sea of color, often creating ragged-edged shapes that appear to have torn away from a larger mass.

Edwards's fluent use of color reinforces the spatial relationships in her paintings. Using a maverick palette, she introduces unlikely color combinations to enliven and distinguish each piece. In Morandi Net the palette evokes the work of that artist, creating a foggy, ghost-like painting, while in Pepto a bubble gum pink and white net floats queasily over a roiling pea green background. Strapless, a large painting in shades of red, demonstrates Edwards’s use of color to define more specific shapes within the net. The opposite effect is achieved in Lilly where a pale, lime grid is so delicate that it seems to dissolve into the oozing, hot pink, background.

Wendy Edwards lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island where she is a tenured professor in Painting at Brown University. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions of her work include Filets, Institute Franco-Américain, Rennes, France, The Skin Between, Wheaton College and Line Dancing, Islip Museum. She has received Salomon research grants from Brown University. Among the artist residencies she has been awarded are the Mac Dowell Colony, Hambridge Center, and Auvillar, France. This is her first one-person show at O·H+T gallery.