HONG KONG.- Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, is presenting an exhibition of new paintings by Garth Weiser, the artist’s third with the gallery.

Weiser’s densely layered paintings celebrate and interrogate the possibilities of the genre. His unorthodox and exploratory approach to surface, dimensionality and perception has resulted in a body of work that is as engrossing and revealing, as it is imaginative.

The artist constructs his paintings layer by layer, reliant primarily on oil paint, spraying and scratching into the canvas’ viscous surface to leave behind a collection of frenetic lines, curves and slashes. As a result of his distinct process, evocative in vigour of the highly-charged manner spearheaded by Abstract Expressionists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, the artist has succeeded in blurring the line between painting and sculpture, using thick impasto to create genre-defying paintings.

This most recent body of paintings sees Weiser explore an evolved sense of animation that has formerly lingered at the innermost layer of his dense oeuvre. The works are characterised by sprawling patterns and forms that stretch expansively across the canvas. Weiser’s gestures veer wildly between organic forms, suggestive of insects or plant life, to frenzied and explosive expressions in vibrant colours set against seemingly impenetrable backgrounds. The patterns on these detail-laden paintings command the viewer’s close attention; The paintings are more effectively untangled in-person and up-close unearthing and exposing the deeply-embedded layers of underpainting, which are often highlighted by the artist’s incisions in the multiple layers; a process of removing the surface similar to the sgraffito technique in ceramics.

Garth Weiser was born in Helena, MT in 1979 and lives and works in New York, NY. Weiser was recently the subject of solo exhibitions at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2017); The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX (2017); Casey Kaplan, New York, NY (2017); Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong (2016); Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA (2014); and White Flag Projects, St. Louis, MO (2010). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Selections from the Marciano Collection, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA (2018); The Campaign for Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2016); Surface Tension, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY (2015); Pattern: Follow the Rules, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (2013); DECADE: Contemporary Collecting 2002-2012, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2012); Nothing Beside Remains, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Marfa, TX (2011); Seeing is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL (2011); and Big New Field: Artists in the Cowboys Stadium Art Program, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2010). Weiser’s work is held in the collections of prominent institutions, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Whitworth, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL.