NEW BERLIN, NY.- Susan Roth, a self-described non-objective painter, offers challenging eccentric outer profiles in many of the paintings in her exhibition BLACK IS A COLOR. The fourteen acrylic paintings exhibited range in date from 1982 through 2019, and trace her unique and individual approach to the shaping of the canvas as it responds to the compositional elements within. Roth takes full advantage of the range of acrylic paints and mediums and had the opportunity to work closely with Sam Golden, the founder of Golden Artist Colors, to create new acrylic products. Her paintings contain collaged canvas elements as well as the low relief provided by the acrylic paints.

A Roth painting can have wildly demanding outer shapes that resemble the state boundaries of Idaho or Nebraska, or they can be subtle trapezoids, or, though infrequently, conventional rectangles. Her choice of shape, whether extreme, or whether adhering to recognizable, traditional rectangles, is generated by a wide range of non-traditional applications of paint. Roth's paint is tactile, hyper-materialized, implying the dynamics of carving and modeling. Surface contrast abounds. Folded and bunched canvas, saturated with medium, are the billowing sleeves and gowns of sixteenth century Venetian paintings made real.

Apropos of the title: 'BLACK IS A COLOR', Roth has used saturated black paint in her paintings as a through-line for the emphasis of drawing in her working method. The richness and depth of black pigment provide an assertive way for her plumb the compositional depths.

Conventional architecture: square rooms, rectangular rooms, occasion the shape of the millions of paintings, prints, photographs, and media screens we all engage. If a preponderance of 21st century paintings as rectangles lulls the art-speaking-world into a recumbent torpor, then the paintings of Susan Roth provide an antidote and a wake-up call.

The title 'BLACK IS A COLOR' reprises that of the post-World War 2 inaugural exhibition held in 1946 at Galerie Maeght in Paris entitled 'le Noir est une Couleur'. Susan Roth has held close the idea of that exhibition as being one of the touchstones of modernism.

JIM WALSH, Gallery Director, The Sam and Adele Golden Gallery

'BLACK IS A COLOR' is an exhibition of paintings by artist Susan Roth to be held at the Sam and Adele Golden Gallery, 188 Bell Road, New Berlin, New York, on Saturday, October 12, 2019 with a public reception for the artist between 5PM and 7PM.

Gallery hours for visiting the SAGG are Monday through Friday 9 AM through 4:30 PM.

BLACK IS A COLOR continues through March, 13, 2020.