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Nancy Wolf  Vertigo Landscape with Three Temples (Mandala Series), 2007 colored pencil and gouache on black paper, 22 x 30 inches ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞  U.S. #1, 1970 color etching, edition:10 27 1/2 x 23 inches  Suburbia, 1970 color etching, edition:15 16 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches Other available works by Nancy Wolf William T. Wiley  Glacier with My Grain, 2008 acrylic and charcoal on canvas 62 x 62 1/2 inches  Glacier with My Grain (Detail),  Glacier with My Grain (Detail),  Buy Part a Zen Sport, 2008 acrylic and charcoal on canvas 37 3/4 x 41 3/4 inches ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞  Words Like Leaders, 1981 watercolor on paper 30 x 22 3/4 inches  Show Me the Line Between, state I, 1983 etching, edition:10 3 x 28 3/4 inches  Show Me the Line Between, state I, detail  Show Me the Line Between, state II, 1983 etching, edition:35 3 x 28 3/4 inches  Show Me the Line Between, state II, detail Other available works by William T. Wiley Sam Gilliam  Repeating Green Slice, 2008 acrylic on birch 49 3/4 x 36 x 3 1/4 inches ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞  Tempo, 1965 acrylic on canvas 56 x 56 inches Other available works by Sam Gilliam Gene Davis  Concord (P324), 1982 acrylic on canvas 69 x 90 inches ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞  untitled (GD170), c. 1952 brush & ink, pen & ink, ink wash 14 x 16 1/2 inches  untitled (GD170), c. 1956 pen & ink, ink wash, watercolor 16 1/2 x 14 inches  untitled, c. 1964 Magna on canvas 27 5/8 x 20 3/16 inches Other available works by Gene Davis Installation Views  
 
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Press Release The summer show at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery focuses on the works of four major gallery artists---Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, William T. Wiley, and Nancy Wolf. Each artist is represented by early and more recent work which offers the opportunity, in each case, to compare influences and styles over several decades. The renowned Color Field artist, Gene Davis is represented by four works that span his career. The earliest is an ink wash drawing from 1952; it is one of the very first works he exhibited. Its organic forms reflect the influence of major abstract expressionist artists of the period. An untitled watercolor from 1956 shows Gene Davis’ style shifting toward more geometric forms, which are a precursor to his radical embrace of the all vertical stripe format. The small, dynamic painting from 1963 shows the artist’s signature style--the vertical stripe, even width, edge to edge composition. Over the next 20 years, Davis explored numerous variations of the color stripe format. The large scale “Concord” from 1982 is a late work, completed several years before the artist’s premature death. The Marsha Mateyka Gallery has represented the Estate of Gene Davis since 1996. Internationally celebrated artist, Sam Gilliam is Washington’s best known living artist. He is represented in this exhibition by two paintings. “Tempo”, 1965 is a rare, early work which is one of a small series of paintings influenced by Washington Color School luminaries of the period, Ken Noland, Morris Louis and Tom Downing. Sam Gilliam then went on to radical departures from the traditional stretched painting with huge installations of color soaked, draped canvases. The artist has continued to merge a fearless use of color with innovations exploring the borders between painting and sculpture. The second work in this exhibition is “Repeating Green Slice”, 2008 , a constructed, abstract painting on birch panels that reveals his exceptional use of color. This work defines while also defying the confines of the rectangle. The Marsha Mateyka Gallery has represented the work of Sam Gilliam since 1998. A major American artist and West Coast legend, William T. Wiley is well known for his paintings, watercolors, prints and drawings that mix text with images and social comment with humor. His work was the subject of a major career retrospective exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2009. In the current exhibition, he is represented by a watercolor, a painting and two early prints. The watercolor, “Words Like Leaders”, 1981 , is an image derived from a shelf in his studio containing a large black ball and various other objects. The text beneath reveals Wiley’s concern that leaders like words can be too easily erased through violence. It includes the message, “Movement to blackball violence for M.L.K. as us”. Two etchings from 1983 titled “Show me the line between…” question the difference between the states of dream and reality. A recent painting, “Glacier with My Grain”, 2008 , again uses the Socratic Method, word play and humor to express concern about global warming. The Marsha Mateyka Gallery has represented the work of William T. Wiley since 1988. New York artist, Nancy Wolf is known for her exceptional, meticulous drawings that for decades have commented on issues concerning the cultural impact of modernization. Two early color etchings in this exhibition, “Suburbia” and “US #1”, both from 1970 , juxtapose geometric abstraction with contemporary realities of suburban, track housing and highway congestion. Over the last 40 years, she has observed and communicated the social and environmental impact of rapid, insensitive modernization of cities in the US, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. The third work in the exhibition is a recent drawing, entitled “Vertigo Landscape with Three Temples”, 2007 that reflects the enormous changes in China which she witnessed firsthand as an artist-in-residence in Hong Kong in 2004. The image presents a view from the surrounding, suffocating towers of grey, modern buildings looking down on a vibrant, traditional temple complex. The artist’s passion has never deviated from this concern for what modernization subsumes in the name of progress. The gallery has represented Nancy Wolf since 1984. |
