Brendan Smith - "Molto Impasto"

Jeff Lincoln Art + Design is pleased to announce Brendan Smith’s ‘Molto Impasto’. The New York-based artist debuts a series of new monochrome paintings in his characteristically highly-impastoed surfaces. A series of paintings muscular in form and evocative of color, these works continue Smith's exploration into "pure painting" and the painting as both a sculptural object, and a unique surface of marks for the viewer to slowly read. The artist employs cement layering tools, large metal spatulas and trowels to move gallons of paint around the canvas, using a set of formal inputs such as size, color, and gestural directions called "finishes" to create works. The artist intends for the viewer to see how his hand moves and pushes the paint across the surface in each painting to create a gestural structure.

Inspired by the industrial processes he sees around New York City and the construction sites prevalent in the area of his studio, Smith noticed the way workers would apply cement and material to various surfaces such as sidewalks and walls, and saw a connection to his own process of applying paint to canvas. He was struck by the subtleties in the marks each worker makes, contrasted with their methods of using repetitive and mechanical motions in applying material to their work areas. In Smith's paintings, this combination of mechanical like gestures, and the artist's hand in each work is highlighted by the luscious and pleasurable nature of pure oil paint. His gestural vocabulary follows four formal finishes: horizontal/ vertical, diagonal, curved,and free form. The oil paint's organic qualities are highlighted through these strict gestural inputs to show the full force of the pure material as the subject of these works. The show will run through June 15th.