OHT Gallery Boston

Previous Exhibits

New Paintings

John Obuck

Nov 11-Dec 16, 2006

O·H+T gallery is pleased to present New Paintings by John Obuck. Obuck's new work is outwardly similar to that of his 2004 exhibition, Imperfect Abstractions, yet there are both subtle and dramatic changes.

Composed of a number of separate canvases of various sizes and shapes, the new paintings are generally larger, though some works in the show have been painted in both a small and a large size. Bloodline and Black Medallion are almost identical paintings. The smaller Bloodline is an elegant study of formal issues such as the relationship of figure to ground, how color relationships define space, and the disparity between the two and three-dimensional aspects of a painting. Black Medallion is a big, maverick piece where the formal grid morphs into a window, through which the painting is viewed. The central white box containing a black oval in Bloodline, has become an empty space in which that same black oval floats. Shapes that were purely abstract in Obuck's earlier works now flirt with representation. As the grid becomes a window, complete with trompe l'0eil mullions, the oval becomes an oculus that seems to return the viewer's gaze. Quirky, off colors replace Obuck's usual primary palette to "create a remembered time, or place, or emotion." While these quasi-abstract paintings shift towards narrative imagery and evocative color, they also become objects that confront the viewer on a physical as well as an intellectual plane.

John Obuck lives in New York and Arizona. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, and has been awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship in Painting, the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicgao, the Cincinatti Art Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank and General Electric Corporation. This is his second one-person exhibition at O·H+T Gallery.