Three California Abstractionists: Andrea Higgins, Roy Thurston, Leonard Paschoal
ROY THURSTON – “Stainless Steel Paintings”
In this exhibition, Los Angelino Roy Thurston’s “paintings” actually aren’t paintings. This group of new work consists of small, thick, rectilinear panels of stainless steel. The surfaces are polished, by hand, directionally. The faces of the paintings shift, depending upon changes in light and perspective, between mirrors and cloudy fields.
Thurston’s work was also recently exhibited in “Panza: The Legacy of a Collector,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
ANDREA HIGGINS – “Out of a Bandbox”
A recent graduate from the San Francisco Art Institute, Andrea Higgins makes paintings that are magnifications of fabric swatches. Glen plaid, herringbone, houndstooth, check, each thread is represented by a brushstroke. The repetition of the marks, like weaving of threads, creates patterns that are both minimal and dynamic. The paintings are elegant abstractions, yet each familiar fabric carries associations for the individual viewer.
LEONARD PASCHOAL – “Reflecting Air”
Paschoal is a Swiss artist currently based in Los Angeles. His geometric paintings hover in the gap between two and three dimensions. Fine, shallow incisions and deeper diagonal insertions disrupt the surface of the paintings. Segments of aluminum and pure pigment contrast against a fine layer of tiny glass beads. The shimmering, shifting surface created by the beads has the quality of light reflecting off mist or clouds as seen from above.
