Abstract Diversity in Painting

Abstract Diversity in Painting Currently Being Exhibited at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries
See installation view here>

Highly accomplished artists with different visions of abstract painting are being exhibited in “Abstract Diversity in Painting” at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in downtown Coral Gables, Florida through July 2019.
For its spring show Virginia Miller, owner and director of Greater Miami’s longest-established contemporary fine art gallery, selected three of the gallery’s leading artists: Florian Depenthal, Ned Evans and Linda Touby.

Despite their very different approaches to abstraction, Miller notes there are significant similarities in the work:

“These artists have been painting for decades and have now reached the mature phase of their careers.” “All three are painting from their personal experiences,”

she adds.

“All are dealing with light. Although Evans work is from an earlier series, Depenthal’s recent work and Touby’s series of ‘Sidney’s Doors,’ have become much more minimal, making the same artistic statements with fewer elements. Like the late works of Matisse, this seems to be a characteristic of experienced master artists.” “Depenthal’s new body of work demonstrates his mastery of the illusion of three-dimensional depth on a flat canvas,”

said Miller. Inspired by the play of light and shadows in his outdoor studio, the German painter uses unorthodox compositions to create startling, elegant paintings.

On display in the front of the gallery is a Depenthal painting from 2005.

“The newer work is very different from the older paintings, which have much more structure and layers and are thicker,”

he said. “Now because of my 30 years’ experience, I can achieve the same volume and depth and motion with less color and fewer elements. In some of these paintings I took the color out and managed to achieve the same power and volume.

“To me, they look as colorful. The black and white almost creates color in your mind.”

Depenthal’s paintings have been shown in more than 100 exhibitions throughout Europe as well as in this country. They are represented in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Art Institute and the ZKM Museum of Karlsruhe, Germany; the Cultural Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, Germany; the Pfizer International collection; and Lake Point Tower Collection in Chicago; among numerous others.

Ned Evans is a world-class surfer who has travelled the world seeking massive waves. His energetic canvases, inspired by surf and strand, evolved from “natural influences of the ocean, transferring its movement and energy into abstracts of color, strokes, patterns and layers,” according to the artist, who states:

“The physicality of surfing and the immersion in the medium translate into what happens in the studio. It’s not conscious—it just happens for me. I like to immerse myself in the process of the painting and the liquidity of the paint. Everything’s done wet-on-wet, and it carries right over into a similar sensation when you’re surfing. In other words, it’s about getting lost, losing the gravitational pull, or at least suspending it all for a moment.”

Evans’ paintings have been featured in more than 100 exhibitions in such leading venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, the La Jolla Museum of Art, and the Laguna Beach Museum of Contemporary Art.

Linda Touby is represented by two series of paintings in this exhibition, her 2006-09 “Homage To Giotto” series, whose canvases replicate the impastoed textures of the 14th Century Italian master’s frescoes, and the more recent “Sidney’s Door” series.
The late Sidney Geist, a highly respected sculptor and author of the definitive book on Constantin Brancusi, had a studio on the same floor as hers . Whenever she looked at the battered white door to his studio, she knew that some day she would paint a series to memorialize her friend and accomplished neighbor.

“The shapes in these paintings, and the colors under the white as well as the lines, are how I wish to emphasize the emotion as well as my impression of the experience,”

Touby says.

Touby’s paintings have been exhibited in some 250 shows and are in the collections of the U. S. State Department, which has included her work in numerous embassy exhibitions around the world, as well as those of General Motors, the Phillips Corporation, and Bertholon-Roland Corporation.

The notorious Wikileaks files disclosed that Touby’s week-long visit to Kuwait sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s ART in Embassies Program was the subject of a series of cables. One stated that

“Ms. Touby’s fascinating displays of her work and energetic lectures before hundreds of students on the topic of ‘The Journey of an American Artist’ were polished, riveting, and so well-received that she continued to make new contacts until just hours before her return flight to the U.S.”

“Abstract Diversity in Painting” will be on exhibit at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries at 169 Madeira Avenue in downtown Coral Gables from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and every first Friday from 6 -10 p.m. for Gables Gallery Night. For more information, visit www.virginiamiller.com or call 305-444-4493.