Maureen Gallace: New Paintings

Opening March 21, 6-8pm

Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by artist, Maureen Gallace. This new collection of landscapes is both lyrical and profoundly minimal— simultaneously a part of the history of American landscape painting as well as embedded in modernist painting process and theory. Inspired by her childhood in New England, Gallace’s subject matter revolves around the home, lush foliage, and calm beaches. The manner in which she strips these scenes of specific mood or emotion, however, leaves the viewer with the feeling of both intimacy and cool isolation.

In her paintings of calm, New England beaches, Maureen creates a composition that is void of human activity. The canvas is broken up into abstract planes of color and texture that asks the viewer to focus on the construction of the composition itself, as well as the treatment of the canvas’ surface. Along this vein, the houses in some of Gallace’s paintings are often windowless and bare—white blocks that reduce the subject matter to a symbol. Perhaps it is a symbol of her painting method itself, which is meticulous and often obsessive with the formal issues of her medium. Recalling the work of such diverse sources as Milton Avery, Fairfield Porter, Alex Katz and Giorgio Morandi, Gallace’s work also speaks of a time and place which exists somewhere between memory and reality.

Maureen Gallace is an instructor of painting at New York University, and has taught in the Art Department of UCLA. Gallace’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Maureen Gallace
New Paintings