NYAB Event - Greg Hopkins "Sub Rosa"

Greg Hopkins "Sub Rosa"

Sloan Fine Art

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In his text-based works, Hopkins plays on our need to decipher and comprehend language. A painting might have many strengths: visual narrative, color, balance, paint handling… but these qualities are all trumped by our compulsion to read the words. By obscuring the text in his work, via dripping letters, intricate patterns, and/or the use of slang and codes, Hopkins forces the viewer to look beyond the literal message and explore the painting's other elements. In his more iconographic works, the message may be more subtle and relayed only through an image. But in all Hopkins ensures that the works be read in terms of painting language instead of just being read, while also delivering a literal message to any viewer willing to work for it.

Greg Hopkins employs a lovingly tedious method to create these intricate acrylic on canvas works. Each color is applied as an individual layer with the help of masking tape and exacto blade. Every curve and flourish is hand drawn and then painstakingly cut and removed to expose area for the next color's application. With each color he starts over, covering the canvas, and then removing areas to create space for the next phase. With this method, it is impossible to decipher the final image until it is complete. Even the artist himself does not see the final result until the last piece of tape is removed.
Haling from the south, Greg Hopkins earned his BFA and MA at the University of Alabama, then his MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design.

[Image: Greg Hopkins "Sub Rosa" (2008) Acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 in.]