Graham Anderson Exhibition

Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

[Image: Graham Anderson "untitled" (2019) oil and acrylic on canvas 26 x 19 in.]

This event has ended.

Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery presents a new show of oil paintings and gouache works on paper by Graham Anderson.

Graham Anderson continues his use of pointillist brushstrokes and trompe l’oeil effect to create and distort illusionistic space. Whereas in earlier works, representations of silhouetted bodies were built up of optically charged fields of dots, here compositions are divided into rectilinear areas that could be shelves, niches, rooms, or flat walls. The subjects in these paintings feel like still life renditions of objects or cabinets. The placement, buildup and scaling of circles, dots and spheres alternately become oranges in mid-peel, hovering shadows, or glowing orbs. Different strategies are employed and rearranged in near-repeating compositions, creating a game of movement, encouraging the eye to dart from painting to painting. In one work a solid orange circle sits before a thick-striped wall of color – existing as pattern and flatness; in the next, both the object and the wall are shattered into staticky brushstrokes as though the molecules of their masses have been shaken. In both manifestations, the fact of the paint sitting on the canvas and the vibrating relationships of color provide the structure for our eye to construct a complex version of reality.

Paintings on paper have always been an integral part of Anderson’s practice, and in addition to the canvases, works on paper feature prominently in this exhibition. While the penciled out compositions and gouache medium bring to mind historical magazine illustration or commercial design work, the reference to interiors, costuming and pattern-making are a key to Anderson’s visual vocabulary, and stand alone as singular works next to their oil counterparts.

Graham Anderson lives and works in New York City. He holds a BFA from The Cooper Union (2003). Anderson has exhibited in shows at Robert Miller Gallery, James Cohan Gallery, Ashes/Ashes, White Columns, and Artspace New Haven. He has also presented solo shows with Downstairs Projects in Brooklyn and Nice & Fit Gallery, Berlin. In 2016 he created work for the FourAM window space in collaboration with Caitlin Keogh. In 2011, Anderson was awarded a residency at the Wiels Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, Belgium. This is Anderson’s fourth solo exhibition with Klaus von Nichtssagend.