Materials and Process Take Center Stage at "3 Ways" Painting Exhibition

Judith Foosaner   “Outside In # 1”   2014  oil on canvas  40 x 40 in

3 Ways : Thomas Zitzwitz, Judith Foosaner and Jimi Gleason

R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla CA

Through February 10th, 2017

Article by Cathy Breslaw

3 Ways is an exhibition of 14 paintings by established painters Thomas Zitzwitz, Judith Foosaner and Jimi Gleason. Though very diverse in the execution of these abstract works, an underlying commonality is each artist’s penchant for activating surfaces.  Foosaner’s works are black, white and gray paintings resembling bimorphic forms and calligraphic marks. Often including layers of collage, these paintings also include mark-making line and gestural brushstrokes within their repetitively patterned shapes. There is a fluidity and rhythm to her constructed spaces.  In contrast  to Foosaner’s black and white palette, Zitzwitz’s works embody luscious rich colors, using reflective interference fluorescent acrylic pigments.  The surfaces of these bold-hued works reveal activated movements that are layered using various tools that have been scraped and pulled across the canvases. There is luminous shimmering light revealed between the layers, enhancing the artist’s mark-making and varied color palette. Gleason’s works also use reflective iridescent paints to create surfaces that display the play of light but in a subdued and meditative manner, giving the viewer a quiet entrance into his paintings. Once there, the color emerges from layers of paint, and the reflective quality of light is visible as the viewer shifts positions in front of the paintings. Also included are two large works using a material process using silver deposits and acrylic that creates a glowing and mirrored surface across the paintings. This enriched and enlivened silver shiny surface draws the viewer’s attention in a different, yet compelling manner than Gleason’s other works. These artists’ works provide viewers with an array of materials and processes used in painting, and by the contrasts with each artist’s works, we can see many differing forms of abstract expression through paint.