Most (all?) paintings contain illusions of spatial depth whether or not there is descriptive subject matter. Formal cues to spatial depth exist all along the continuum in landscape painting, which runs from highly descriptive at one end (think Constable) to totally non-objective at the other (think Hans Hoffman, de Kooning, Held). On this continuum there is a middle point where, in a given work, a stroke or two will shift that work from non-objective to descriptive. And, for an artist, that is a very interesting place to be.

In our first show, The Landscape Described, artists are dealing with the descriptive end of this continuum and employ subject matter as a major factor (there are many) in providing the illusion of a real or imagined place.

In the second, The Landscape Evoked, artists are working at the non-objective end of the continuum. Since specific references to subject matter are absent, they must rely on other formal cues to create an illusion of space that will be “convincing”.

Darlene Campbell, Kimberly Clark, Josh Dorman, Kathy Gore-Fuss, Laura Hamje, Michelle Muldrow, Andrew Yates

Darlene Campbell, Josh Dorman & Michelle Muldrow courtesy of Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA