Tuesday, July 16, 2013

In Process: Brooke Moyse

Studio view of new works

Studio view


The Brooklyn based artist, Brooke Moyse, is one of my favorite painters working in New York today.
While her work could be cited as an example of Bushwick's recent New Casualist esthetic, the formal qualities of Moyse's painting have been evolving steadily, into a studied offhandedness, for some years. 
The quick appearance of her paint application is butted against a sophisticated palette, and accute sense of composition, that lend an air of urbanity to Moyse's paintings. 
These varied, formal contrasts, along with the ambition and scale of much of her work, 
make her seem right at home in the current group show at Loretta Howard Gallery in Chelsea. In DNA: Strands of Abstraction, she shares wall space with Kline, Motherwell, Frankenthaller, Poons and Rockburne without missing a beat.

In the latest entry, for the In Process series, I am happy to present the development of one of Moyse's recent paintings . . . . 









From the artist's statement:

I am interested in creating works in which the primary subject is the act of looking, and where that process slowly unfolds with time. This idea translates physically into playful marks and gestures that allude to architecture, nature, and film, marking light and space through a casual and straight-forward gesture. I work on multiple pieces of varying sizes and materials simultaneously; a method that allows the works to talk to one another while developing their own individuality. The goal is to create an experience for the viewer in which the feeling of being present is heightened, and the artwork’s energy flows beyond the borders of the canvas.
I am interested in the way in which religion and spirituality have been key motivators or filters for art throughout history, and my artistic practice becomes a way to bring different movements and time periods into the present. I take on various artists or art historical movements, engaging in conversations with them through my work. At times it starts to feel like a performance of art making in which I am trying on different methodologies and then translating them into my own language. Mostly though, I am looking, anticipating, and scraping together an environment through my work, that is simultaneously funny, serious, poetic, and without boundaries.






Big, acrylic on canvas, 94 x 60 in. 



Brooke Moyse's work can currently be seen in the group show, DNA: Strands of Abstraction, up through August 2 at the Loretta Howard Gallery in Chelsea.


*all images provided by the artist.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

magnificent

vc said...

It's wonderful to see this come into being. I almost had chills when I realized the black spots from the initial foray remain in that warped check pattern. And while I can imagine this work being dismissed as a savvy deployment of Heilmann-esque cliches, the waves added towards the end as well as other elements show that it is staking a claim for invention, in sensitive dialogue with the painting as it develops. I mean yes, there are knowns on display, unavoidably familiar tropes, but instead of lined up as wink-nudge inventory, they are combined in such a way that asks us to consider them as rhythm, contrast, proximity, overlap, etc., and the inherent abstract (not or not only allegorical) meaningfulness of these relationships

Jessica Snow said...

I love seeing the work in process shots-- she makes it look like fun, and that inspires!