RORY MACARTHUR
March 13 through April 9, 2003
- Tues-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5
Opening reception: Thursday March 13, 6-8pm
Kenny Schachter ConTEMPorary
14 Charles Lane, NYC 10014
t. 212 807-6669 f. 645-074
www.RoveTV.net schachter@mindspring.com
Hours: Tues - Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5
Between West
and Washington Streets Perry and Charles Streets
Rory MacArthur is a New York-based Scottish
painter who is presenting his solo debut at Kenny
Schachter conTEMPorary from March 13 until April 9.
MacArthur's current series of paintings are the latest
group in a very rapidly evolving and ambitious investigation
into what he sees to be the limitless possibilities
of non-representational painting today. The paintings
always originate in one of MacArthur's many sketchbooks,
coming directly from specific drawings which in the
past year alone have numbered nearly one thousand.
It typically takes over one hundred sketches or studies
to yield one painting, a thoroughness of approach
that is important to emphasize in light of the effortless
appearance of the end results. The paintings seem
to have appeared out of thin air as they float and
pulsate on the wall.
Once the artist singles out a specific study, he begins
an elaborate but direct process of building up a support
by using multiple layers of Styrofoam. The foam is
carved, sanded, sealed, and sanded again, a labor-intensive
method that actually disguises the effort needed to
create the surface needed to begin a given painting.
By the time MacArthur begins painting he knows his
support very well. He deploys the very real 3-D surfaces
of his pieces in a kind of visual dance with the illusionist
qualities and capabilities of paint. MacArthur uses
color applied by roller and by air to undermine and
underline the physicality of his carved surfaces.
The result is a painted space as complex as it is
seductive and beautiful.
Christian Haub
