SANTA FE, NM.- Everlove, an exhibition of new work by Pard Morrison will open at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art on July 3 and extend to August 1. An opening reception with the artist will be on Friday, July 3, from 5-7 p.m. at the gallery, which is located at 554 S. Guadalupe in the Railyard Art District.

It is best to let yourself slowly wander through the gallery once, then circle back and walk through again, even more slowly. As the viewer engages with them in physical space, these painted sculptures radiate a sensation of aliveness, a persistent "beingness". Walking among the columns (ranging from 6 to 10 feet tall) in particular, almost feels like moving through a group of people, or through a forest of tall trees. Move close. Look closer. They seem almost to be speaking to you.

The language of Pard Morrison's painted sculptures, whether the columns, cubes, or the stacked box wall piece included in this exhibition, is a complex interplay of minimal elements. There is the architectural nature of these 3/16" plate aluminum pieces, precisely cut and welded into geometric volumes. There is the juxtaposition of this industrial fabrication with the fact that, as the viewer notices on close inspection - the myriad colors of industrial Flouronar paint across the surface have been applied by hand. The marks of Morrison's brushwork remain visible, belying that veneer of industrial "perfection" that they may seem to have from a distance. The colors themselves are painted across the surfaces as if the sculpture was a canvas in elaborate patterns of shapes and bands and puzzle pieces.

It is this interweave of pattern and color - the groupings, rhythms, contrasts and emotional freight of the colors themselves that seem to form the most complex aspects of Morrison's sculptural language. Morrison has spoken about color as providing a form of "emotional architecture" within his works. His sense of the emotional and psychological, as well as the aesthetic qualities of color is utilized to create dialogue and movement across the planes of these surfaces.

For example, the interlocking diamonds and triangles of the 6 ft. column draw the eye upward, while the alternating of brighter and more saturated colors with softer, lighter hues creates a rhythm for the eye of movements and pauses. Meanwhile the cube utilizes irregular and overlapping shapes, and the appearance of a thin black bar and small orange rectangle seem almost like notations, or punctuation, against the larger pale gray-blue shapes of the piece. Added to all of this is that changes in the light and atmosphere, of the angle at which the viewer is approaching the piece, will cause shifts in the colors, softening, deepening, altering the way they interact with each other.

Each of these aspects of the work can be taken in turn: the traces of Morrison's "imperfect" mark making, the human-sized volumes of the pieces, the chance of light and season, the patterning, geometries, puzzle-like weaving, the emotionality, movement, and energy created by the colors. But the magic truly happens when the viewer begins to take in the relationships between all these disparate aspects, to see the whole.

Not surprisingly, Morrison has an affinity for the work of the nature poet Mary Oliver. He says that one particular quote has stayed with him for years, "Attention is the beginning of devotion." It is an apt quote. Life is at root an interplay between order (structure, repetition, reproducible rules and laws of biology and physics) and chaos (the genetic slip, the missed connection, the butterfly flapping its wings). What minimalism does so well, what Morrison is offering with his work, is to strip out the extraneous, leaving behind a composition that provides a more accessible entry point for humans to slow down and practice attention. To see. To see how infinitely complex even one tiny space, one piece of art, can be. The relationships ripple out from there.

Everlove offers the viewer a chance to slow down. To see differently. To begin to learn a language made of color and shape, of space and light. To feel the significance of the human hand amid a world of tech and noise. As Morrison says: "I believe that mark making is a form of prayer. My work is an accumulation of prayers."

For More Information:

Charlotte Jackson Fine Art
554 South Guadalupe
Santa Fe, NM 87501
press@charlottejackson.com
505-989-8688
fax 505-989-9898