NONSTOP! AT ANCA GALLERY 17 May – 4 June 2017
NONSTOP! is a series of ten vibrant large-scale acrylic airbrushed paintings, simultaneously about control and letting go. Rows of fast-paced topographical squiggles dance across the canvas in linear compositions. This gestural and lyrical, but almost obsessively repetitive abstraction, could be likened to Cy Twombly’s meditative scrawls across his picture surfaces, but Mueller contrasts this with hard-edge, geometric abstraction, reminiscent of the minimalist works of Frank Stella.
Rectangular frames interrupt the continuity of the loops across the picture plane. These frames create each work’s compositional structure but also its pictorial tension. They become paintings within paintings. Like Stella, they are a continual reference to the object they are painted on. However, in Mueller’s case, she wants the viewer to return to the optical illusion she has crafted. The clarity of the airbrushed line varies, appearing to come in and out of focus. The illusion of depth is aided by variation in the scale of the lines. She splices multiple atmospheres together, alluding to doorways and windows into multiple dimensions at once or a pile of paintings stacked on top of each other.
Techniques include digital-like gradients, dappled atmospheric watercolor effects, line-work on partially exposed gesso grounds and kitsch ‘camo’ patterning. The edges of the canvas are left unmasked with the overspray giving clues to the construction of the painting. The careful masking and lengthy priming process are in stark contrast to the high-stakes hurried mark making, each line painted in one continuous gesture. As in the work of action painter Jackson Pollock the physicality of painting is key. The element of chance causes small ‘imperfections,’ such as drips or splatters, which break the illusion that the gradients are digitally rendered, revealing truth of material and a street art vibe.
EDITED EXCERPT FROM THE ESSAY ‘POST ANALOG PAINTING II’
THE HOLE GALLERY, NEW YORK, 2017.
The long and complex shift in culture from analog media to digital media is the most significant transformation of our generation, and it has long-reaching and manifold effects that continue to permeate all modes of visual expression. The more interesting shift in painting has nothing to do with the media used but instead the forms, composition and content in painting. Digital tools have affected our way of thinking; the logic of Photoshop or structure of pixelation shapes a painter’s approach to color, form, depth, shade, tone, volume; even when away from their laptops.
If the painting gets a like, you might snap a photo before you move on; an Instagrammable image has a leg up in the market, a high-contrast composition with punched up colors that looks good at 72dpi will get re-blogged more often. The push and pull between what inspires the work and how it is shared cycles onward as content, meaning, approach and reproduction accelerate.
‘Post-Analog’ suggests that the paintings were not even conceivable before digital imaging changed the structure of our images. Items at shallow depth leave shadows but not the standardized way a drop-shadow filter does. Airbrush and spray are frequent tools of digitally-minded painters so that their IRL creations can have the soft-focus of low resolution or the seamless blend of a computer gradient on a glowing laptop screen.
NONSTOP! is a series of ten vibrant large-scale acrylic airbrushed paintings, simultaneously about control and letting go. Rows of fast-paced topographical squiggles dance across the canvas in linear compositions. This gestural and lyrical, but almost obsessively repetitive abstraction, could be likened to Cy Twombly’s meditative scrawls across his picture surfaces, but Mueller contrasts this with hard-edge, geometric abstraction, reminiscent of the minimalist works of Frank Stella.
Rectangular frames interrupt the continuity of the loops across the picture plane. These frames create each work’s compositional structure but also its pictorial tension. They become paintings within paintings. Like Stella, they are a continual reference to the object they are painted on. However, in Mueller’s case, she wants the viewer to return to the optical illusion she has crafted. The clarity of the airbrushed line varies, appearing to come in and out of focus. The illusion of depth is aided by variation in the scale of the lines. She splices multiple atmospheres together, alluding to doorways and windows into multiple dimensions at once or a pile of paintings stacked on top of each other.
Techniques include digital-like gradients, dappled atmospheric watercolor effects, line-work on partially exposed gesso grounds and kitsch ‘camo’ patterning. The edges of the canvas are left unmasked with the overspray giving clues to the construction of the painting. The careful masking and lengthy priming process are in stark contrast to the high-stakes hurried mark making, each line painted in one continuous gesture. As in the work of action painter Jackson Pollock the physicality of painting is key. The element of chance causes small ‘imperfections,’ such as drips or splatters, which break the illusion that the gradients are digitally rendered, revealing truth of material and a street art vibe.
EDITED EXCERPT FROM THE ESSAY ‘POST ANALOG PAINTING II’
THE HOLE GALLERY, NEW YORK, 2017.
The long and complex shift in culture from analog media to digital media is the most significant transformation of our generation, and it has long-reaching and manifold effects that continue to permeate all modes of visual expression. The more interesting shift in painting has nothing to do with the media used but instead the forms, composition and content in painting. Digital tools have affected our way of thinking; the logic of Photoshop or structure of pixelation shapes a painter’s approach to color, form, depth, shade, tone, volume; even when away from their laptops.
If the painting gets a like, you might snap a photo before you move on; an Instagrammable image has a leg up in the market, a high-contrast composition with punched up colors that looks good at 72dpi will get re-blogged more often. The push and pull between what inspires the work and how it is shared cycles onward as content, meaning, approach and reproduction accelerate.
‘Post-Analog’ suggests that the paintings were not even conceivable before digital imaging changed the structure of our images. Items at shallow depth leave shadows but not the standardized way a drop-shadow filter does. Airbrush and spray are frequent tools of digitally-minded painters so that their IRL creations can have the soft-focus of low resolution or the seamless blend of a computer gradient on a glowing laptop screen.