David Rhodes and Gary Stephan “New Paintings”

Hionas Gallery Backroom

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Hionas Gallery presents the two-artist exhibition of new paintings by David Rhodes and Gary Stephan, marking the inaugural show in the gallery’s new space at 356 Broadway (lower level) in Tribeca.

Together, both artists employ a distinct abstract vocabulary that lends their respective works a near-architectural character, composed of geometric elements, lines, and tonal relationships that invite viewers to inhabit the space and uncover each painting’s explicit and implicit qualities. While each artist’s approach to the canvas differs from one another, the resulting compositions reveal a mutual penchant for communicating an otherwise conceptual language through the use of precise forms.

In the latest works by Rhodes, the complementary lines and contrasting fields of light and dark that the artist typically constructs have given way to patterns arguably more rhythmic and subtle than previous efforts. The tension of the pictorial space has been eased somewhat, with Rhodes placing disconnected black lines of varying length and volume within a darker stained black field, yielding surfaces and colorations that recall Rothko’s Black-Form paintings.

For Gary Stephan’s latest, the artist has composed a series of legible flat fields and spaces in which affinal geometric forms and colors interplay. The architectural and mechanical qualities of each piece appear fundamental to the composition, and yet, Stephan doesn’t shy from leaving painterly gestures in places that reveal the artist’s hand. This quality, along with Stephan’s deft use of line to suggest tonal depth in an otherwise flat domain, communicates the artist’s affinity for creating conflict on the canvas.