NEW YORK, N.Y.- The
Elizabeth Harris Gallery presents an exhibition of recent paintings by Pat Passlof. This is her seventh exhibition with the gallery. The gallery is located at 529 West 20th Street, 6th floor and is open Tues. Sat. 11-6pm.
In an essay for Passlofs last exhibtion at the gallery David Cohen writes, However much her gestures and textures are emotionally articulate, and her surfaces are rich and resonant, Passlof is not an expressionist in the traditional sense of emoting through paint, of the brush being some kind of a geyser to her soul. Patterning, in particular militates against any kind of self-satisfied ejaculatory mark. And yet, equally, she is no slave of systems: grids, patterns, and repetitions have nothing to do with the formalists color field or the minimalist addiction to the serial. Her painting is an assured, fluent balance of gesture and composition.
Reflecting upon his recent studio visit with Pat Passlof, David Reed writes, I was amazed by the paintings on which she was working for her current show. These paintings, finished and still in progress, were arrayed in a semicircle in the center of the lofty space under the skylight. The paintings glowed with the indirect light from the large window in the rear of the studio. Some were up from the floor on easels and others leaned against one another on the floor. The paintings were so lively, so animated, that even before we spoke of Pats background as youthful dancer, I imagined that all the paintings were suspended at mid jump.
Each painting seemed to resist gravity, to no longer move, to hover, quivering in place. In several paintings I saw hints of figures, buildings, horizons, unexpected vistas leading to strange lights. In the largest painting which is an unnamable brown/yellow/red, a detached, weightless canvas floated as if ready to escape through the skylight or to come out to meet me. The paintings seemed to me to sum up her accomplishments as a painter and at the same time to be so open and absorbent, so guileless, that they were also the work of a beginner.
Pat Passlof received the 2006 Edwin P. Palmer Memorial Prize from the National Academy Museum in New York. She was recently profiled in The New York TImes article by Penelope Green, titled; His And Hers Synagogues. She was included this fall in the just concluded Black Mountain College and Its Legacy at Loretta Howard Gallery.
In the beginning of 2012 Pat Passlof will be having two exhibitions titled Pat Passlof: Selections 1948 2011 at the Black Mountain College Museum and at The Fine Art Museum of Western Carolina University.