NYAB Event - Freddie Styles Exhibition

Freddie Styles Exhibition

Bill Hodges Gallery

This event has ended.

A solo exhibition of the nature-inspired works of abstractionist artist Freddie Styles. Styles’ visually stunning works come from a place of reverence for as well as a strong understanding of nature. Styles is a gardener and has a great love and appreciation for rural living. His interest in natural and elemental forms is readilly apparent in his works. Unlike Jackson Pollock, who was also interested in natural forms and strong all-over compositions, Styles’ work comes even closer to the elemental power of nature. It does this by formally alluding to many different aspects of its appearance as well as its yearly cycle, such as the icy whites and blues of winter, and the radiant reds, greens, and yellows of spring. In some works, the small and repetitious, almost pointellist brushtrokes reference nature’s vastness as can be found in a brilliant field full of flower. Others have large fields of monochrome color dotted by dark lines that resemble the cracks and crevaces in a vast ice-scape. These elements give you the feeling that through their constant yet chaotic rhythm, they could extend infinitely beyond the edges of the canvas. Styles even uses nature itself in creating the work, such as in the “Roots” series where he substitutes azalea plant roots for the traditional paintbrush, and in so doing incorporates it into the very act of making. Despite his commitment to nature he also has a dedication to abstraction, and while his works allude to the natural world and to its forms, they are still solidly nonrepresentational. It is these allusions to nature which give them their power, perhaps more than any specific imagery of natural objects could.

He has developed a distinctive method of working involving pressing multiple sheets of fax paper onto a gessoed paper surface after crumpling up and applying ink to the paper. He also adds metallic inks to the works, which gives them more dimensionality. It is impressive that a process that involves such cultural objects as metallic ink and fax paper can create a work that comes so close to exhibiting nature’s beauty.

[Image: Freddie Styles "Study In Green, White and Silver #3" (2011) acrylic on Gessoed Lenox 100 Rag Paper 30 x 22 in.]