Sidewinder
October 30 - December 1, 2019
“On the Bright Side” by Pamela Reynolds
Opening Reception: Friday, November 8, 6 - 8:30pm
Color — vivid, fluorescent color, unfettered and free, is the subject of Pamela Reynolds’ most recent series of abstract paintings.
Contrasting bold linear pattern with freely-wrought drips, splatters and pours, these paintings were inspired by urban signage, graffiti, psychedelia, and the inner workings of the artist’s own mind. Reynolds works with a “happy palette” that eschews what she calls the “tasteful” and embraces instead wild and flamboyant exuberance.
“This was partially a reaction to the many “tasteful” paintings that I see around me in many public spaces that seem made specifically to be safe and inoffensive. I wondered what it would be like to create paintings made specifically to be “unsafe?”
The artist was inspired by a diverse group of idiosyncratic abstractionists who have also used color as a primary element while alluding to more spiritual themes, including German painter Charlene von Heyl, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klimt. In making these paintings, she also became aware that Washington DC has historically been a locus for painting in bright, bold, living color. It was in The District that Sam Gilliam, Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis formed an art movement known as the Washington Color School.
“Recently, the world has felt pretty dark,” says Reynolds. “I wanted to reach inside myself to create intuitive and animated paintings of joy and jubilance that might also feel a little wild. This is as good a moment as any to look on the bright side of things.”
“On the Bright Side” can be seen at Touchstone Gallery, 901 New York Avenue, NW Washington DC from Oct. 30 through December 1. Opening Reception: Friday November 8, 6 - 8:30pm. A second “meet and greet” will be held Saturday Nov. 16, from 2 to 4 p.m.