NYAB Event - John Dubrow “Transformations”

John Dubrow “Transformations”

Lori Bookstein Fine Art

This event has ended.

Lori Bookstein Fine Art announces John Dubrow: Transformations. The exhibition includes breakthrough new and reworked cityscapes and portraits. This is the artist’s seventh solo-show with the gallery.

John Dubrow’s paintings are formal constructions created from a unique combination of initial inspiration, formal observation and accumulated memories. Equally important to the artist, however, is the improvisation that happens within the studio, where the painting is worked and reworked; its final outcome never predicted from the outset. Oil paint is layered thickly, almost geologically in appearance, in a testament to time taken before arriving at a satisfactory compression of composition, color and form.

In paintings such as Playground and Tribeca, the artist explores opening up deep space within a scene, creating a tension between the two-dimensional picture plane and the portrayed perspective. Indeed, the viewer oscillates between simultaneously viewing and experiencing the work. Subtle variations in color choice also become increasingly important within these paintings. In Tribeca, glassy hues that are suggestive of muted daylight highlight the dynamism of the scene, while in Playground darker tonalities are used to create discreet rhythms that structure the painting’s composition.

In all of these works, there is a shift towards freer, more gestural marks that are even disruptive at times. By using his hands to directly apply the paint, Dubrow achieves a deeper connection to the work both literally and figuratively. In doing so, the artist eliminates unnecessary details to create a looser, more open facture that incites the original spirit of the person or place depicted.