Dimmitt Contemporary Art is pleased to announce OPEN, an exhibition of paintings by North Carolina artist Donald Martiny. An opening reception and artist talk will be held on Thursday, November 7 from 6:00 - 8:00pm. The exhibition will be on view through Thursday, January 2, 2020.
Martiny’s OPEN series continues the artist’s exploration into the presence and power of gestures made to exist forever in the present. Moving away from earlier forms that were closed, Martiny’s latest body of work incorporates a significant amount of negative space. OPEN refers to the action of the viewer rather than the object itself. Martiny borrows this concept from a series of works by Robert Motherwell, depicting abstract windows in order to gaze into the infinite. Operating in the gap between painting and sculpture, Martiny defines his paintings as the brushstroke itself.
These sculptural brushstrokes are created by manipulating paint, pigments and polymers to create lyrical, abstract expressionist paintings. Martiny is interested in allowing gesture to escape from the traditional rectangular support and realize its potential in relation to architectural space. Each piece encourages a dialogue between the viewer, the work, and the space contained within. “Donald Martiny’s work forces us to question the established definitions which form the backbone of our understanding of painting as both a pursuit and a product, and of paint as a medium. In challenging the viewer in these ways, it is not only visually exciting but intellectually invigorating.” - Professor Deborah Swallow, Màˆrit Rausing Director, The Courtauld Institute of Art
