CHICAGO, IL.- Shane Guffogg is a painter with a deeply disciplined approach to his art making. His practice was influenced by his many years as the studio assistant to Ed Ruscha, who encouraged him to find his voice and pursue his singular vision. Steeped in the Southern California traditions of light and space, cool school, and synchromism, Guffogg is a painter of lyrical abstraction — his works fuse color, movement, spirit, and form into a sophisticated whole. Also included in this exhibition is a limited edition print created in partnership with Aardvark Letterpress in Los Angeles. This exhibition will run concurrently with a retrospective of Guffogg's work at the Academy of Fine Arts Museum St. Petersburg, Russia.

Shane Guffogg is in the collections of: The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Duke University Museum, Durham NC, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno CA, Jumex Foundation, Mexico City, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach CA.

Shane Guffogg Artist’s Statement
Sight and the idea of seeing, both the physical world and the terrain that is sensed, but just beyond reach, is a recurring theme in my work. The referencing of poetry for my titles is an inroad to that invisible landscape — and when I really stop and think about it — my way of giving an audience a looking glass to see.

When I Consider How My Light is Spent is the title of a poem by the English poet, John Milton, (1608 -1674). The poem is Milton's contemplation of his life with the onset of his blindness, and how useful he might still be, or not be, to God. I think of my paintings as wordless poems. They are a form of writing but with paint via a brush. In the case of this title, Milton's poem allowed me to start thinking differently about light because the title infers it is finite; there comes a moment when the light is no more.

In this series of paintings, the light source for each of these works is coming from approximately where the viewer should be standing, making the viewers conscious awareness of the work and their place in that moment in time, both the perceived and imagined. It is a way of exploring the conundrum between the physical and the spiritual, which I like to think of as the infinity of perception.