ART CITIES:Aspen-Anthony Pearson

Anthony Pearson occupies a quietly antithetical position in a contemporary cultural landscape characterized by visual noise and short attention spans. An exploration of the possibilities inherent to a small group of materials (plaster, bronze, and steel among them), his work fosters concentrated modes of perception, and has taken shape according to a number of different typologies over the course of his career. Photography played a formative role at the beginning of his project, and the action of a shutter capturing serial instances of light continues to be a guiding metaphor for the way he produces, edits, and installs his work.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marianne Boesky Gallery Archive

Anthony Pearson’s solo exhibition features works from Pearson’s “Embedments”, “Etched Plasters” and “Tablets” series, each of which capture his sensitivity to the experience of light, texture, and color. Pearson’s ability to capture the sensation of light emanating from deep within his materials positions him within the trajectory of California’s Light and Space Movement, which has concerned itself with the effects of form and light on viewer perception and experience. Further underlying Pearson’s practice is an experimentation with physicality, which results in works that behave in instances as both sculpture and painting as well as both object and image. This interplay between formal vocabularies is particularly felt as one experiences and considers the progression of his distinct series, starting with the “Tablets”, which Pearson produced between 2010 and 2014. Abstract sculptural works that are affixed to the wall, the “Tablets” appear as soft organic forms folding onto themselves or as small bundles of volumetric cylinders. Handcrafted in clay, cast in bronze, and coated with cobalt and silver nitrate patina, the Tablets actively respond to their environment, absorbing and reflecting the light within the space. While their physicality positions them clearly within the trajectory of sculpture, their placement on the wall retains some suggestion of the experience of painting. Pearson’s development of the series gave way to an extensive exploration of the formal possibilities of hydrocal, a gypsum cement, which continues to today. To create the “Etched Plasters” Pearson pours the material, mixed with colored pigment, into a frame and then uses a carbide knife and custom-made wood guides to make incisions into the surface. The finished pieces are distinguished by the intricate interplay of line and density, as the subtle and precise cuts stand in dynamic contrast to the solidity of the hyrocal. Here, Pearson’s work on the surface replicates the expression of paint on canvas or pencil on paper, while the material itself provides the dimensionality of sculpture—fusing the two media into a new kind of object.  With his “Embedments” series, Pearson more fully embraces the language of free-form gesture, most often associated with painting. In this most recent series, Pearson pours the differently colored hydrocal in layers, into a mold backed by a stretched canvas. In instances, Pearson shifts the mold, while in others he allows the cement to settle organically. This action results in the creation of rich color fields that weave together to suggest abstract landscapes. In this way, the painterly gesture is inextricably tied to the physicality of the work itself, which is also emphasized by the textural impressions and traces of fiber filament left on the surface from the stretched canvas that is removed upon the material’s hardening.

Info: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 100 South Spring Street, Aspen, Duration: 28/6-20/7/19, Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 11:00-17:00, www.marianneboeskygallery.com