Curated by Douglas Ferrari
April 29 - June 2, 2005

Participating artists include Chakaia Booker, Karen Gunderson, Kocot & Hatton, Gary Kuehn, Sol Lewitt, Quentin Morris, Lars Strandh, Ad Reinhardt, Richard Serra and Merrill Wagner.

"I organized this exhibition to provide a sampling of a few of the many artists who have chosen to use a predominantly black palette. In western culture black has a long association with the negative - sin, holes, evil, voids, depravity, the sinister and the absence of light, to name a few. This dark association with black seems to lie deep in our psyche. This is evident in the works of Kocot + Hatton who create work collaboratively during that semiconscious state between sleep and being awake. After the events of 9-11 they found their work took on a far more blackened, all-encompassing, and dark effect. There is also a certain isolation in Merrill Wagner's work - a stillness approaching sadness. The coldness and weightiness of the steel accent the austerity of the blackness to reflect an existential landscape.

Darkness seems such an inherent quality of black that it is surprising to find an artist who totally inverts this inference. Karen Gunderson utilizes her black palette to visualize the effects of light. The way the light reflects off of her intricate black brushstrokes creates rich seascapes and quiet constellations which reference historic events.

By constricting the palette to black one would assume a reductive or minimalist approach to art-making. Sol Lewitt has often been involved with systems. The overlying black system subverting the forms below. This juxtaposition is what John Bently Mays describes as " . . . a subtle interplay between human emotion and spatial system - between enclosure and disclosure." While many seem to reference that methodical orderliness others seem to reference that stillness which black inherently possesses. Ad Reinhardt, for example, finds black possessing perfection and the ability to transcend the imperfections of life.

Quentin Morris
Untitled, silk screen ink on canvas,
Courtesy of the Larry Becker Gallery

Lars Strandh's triptych can also be viewed from a purely formal approach - canvas and paint. But at times an atmospheric, almost ethereal quality begins to emerge. Strandh welcomes either approach to his work, and the viewers might find themselves oscillating between these two ways of viewing his work. I have found that the more I "live" with Lars work, the more their translucency and luminosity take hold of my interaction with these works and the less apparent their formal approach becomes.

Quentin Morris also, uses simple geometric shapes. For over 40 years he has explored the textures and tones of black to attack any cultural biases associated with the color. Morris explains, however, that his purpose is " . . . ultimately, to create work that innately expresses the all encompassing spirituality of life." Similar to Morris' addressing the racial biases of black, Chakaia Booker uses black to reflect her life as an African-American woman. Booker says that the black of the rubber, "is the blackness, the skin color of Africans... ", while " . . The tire tread patterns are similar to African motifs used in fabrics... body decoration... and other art works."

The purity implied in geometric forms may be idealistic but not always realistic. Gary Kuehn assaults the perfection implied by the pure platonic forms so admired by minimalists. His Black Painting's show "circles" and the variety of forces that can affect even such a "perfect" entity. Like much of his sculpture, Kuehn's paintings seem to be addressing the myriad pressures, forces and restraints inherent in existence.

Richard Serra, another artist known for his sculpture, appears to reflect the shear mass of his sculpture in his prints. Serra's print, Schlaun, reflects the weightiness and overwhelming use of gravity apparent in his steel sculpture.

Simple forms, simply black - yet perhaps not that simple. This exhibition illustrates that the reasons for using black vary nearly as much as the reasons for art-making - to draw out of the darkness issues of stillness and sadness, social and cultural pressures, racial issues and cultural biases, mass and weightiness, but also purity, light and ultimately transcendence. "

Douglas Ferrari, curator