Get in Line

The main current in abstraction is formalism, and the journey from the more-is-more approach of abstract expressionism to the less-is-more motives of minimalism has led to more than half a century of interesting work. In recent years, though, many artists have tweaked the two opposites, merging them into a single...

By Michael Paglia

August 19, 2010

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The main current in abstraction is formalism, and the journey from the more-is-more approach of abstract expressionism to the less-is-more motives of minimalism has led to more than half a century of interesting work. In recent years, though, many artists have tweaked the two opposites, merging them into a single approach.

That’s exactly what Denver painter Jessica Loving has done in her solo show, Meridians. Like the abstract expressionists, she’s created gestural color fields as the basis for her pieces — but like the minimalists, she’s bound them in hard-edged compositions, using straight lines to do it. “The line has been an obsession of mine,” muses Loving. “It’s not only present in the physical, but in our experiences, our personal histories. It’s a piece of elegant prose that’s the very way we’re able to understand ourselves.”

Loving’s show is being mounted at Sync, the city’s newest co-op that was founded just a year or so ago at 878-1 Santa Fe Drive, right across from Core. There’s an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight; the show runs through September 11. For more information, go to www.syncgallery.org.
Aug. 20-Sept. 11, 2010

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Michael Paglia is an art historian and writer whose columns have appeared in Westword since 1995; his essays on the visual arts have also been published in national periodicals including Art News, Architecture, Art Ltd., Modernism, Art & Auction and Sculpture Magazine. He taught art history at the University of Colorado Denver.

Contact: Michael Paglia