Spreading the Wealth: McWhorter in New York
By Tom Wachunas
EXHIBIT: SLOW FORMATIONS, recent oil paintings by Jack McWhorter, at
THE PAINTING CENTER, 547 WEST 27TH STREET, SUITE 500, NEW
YORK, NY 10001 / Exhibition dates: MAY
23 – JUNE 17, 2017 / GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY, 11:00 AM - 6:00
PM / (212) 343 – 1060
Over the past several years I’ve written
here about my ever-deepening appreciation of Jack McWhorter’s work. The following is
the catalog essay which I was thrilled and honored to write for his upcoming
exhibit in New York.
SLOW FORMATIONS
Here are
enthralling new episodes in Jack McWhorter’s ongoing development of what he has
called “…snapshots of structures in flux or becoming.” These structures can be
considered as metaphorical suggestions, or models, of entities simultaneously
earthbound and cosmological. You could call them arrivals, laden with ample
evidence, at once logical and still evolving, of the serpentine paths that led
to their current destination, their “look.” That logic and evolution springs
from McWhorter’s rudimentary questioning of how to paint, indeed how to see,
and often seems to invoke a Cezannesque spirit of painted surface dynamics. His
operational methodology weaves together myriad procedures and terrains into
discrete paint-on-canvas formations.
How many ways can
paint rest on, or underneath, or be moved across the surface? Classical ideas
of gesture and touch come into play. Cognizant of the fluidity and weight of
his hand, the differing pressures and motions of his brush to canvas, and the
variable viscosity of the paint, McWhorter establishes sets of marks, lines,
and washes, often layered – zigzags, diamond shapes, or lozenge units amid
ghostly grids – all separate yet inseparable. And essential to the impact of
these images is the exhilarating expressivity of color. Call it chromatic
drama. McWhorter describes it this way: “My central narrative is to make color
come into its own through response to other colors. The paintings start with
the stratification of color and paint and the idea you can keep things
organized through movement and repetition…”
These integrated
systems of gestural and chromatic configurations can allow all manner of
associations. They might indicate tangible, scientific phenomena and structures
in the natural world, or signal the subtler workings of life on less visible
planes. In any case, McWhorter continues to construct a painterly calligraphy
of poetic singularities. In his paintings, the mysterious and the mundane are
conflated into elegant coexistence. Here is a harmonious convergence of
processes conscious and intuitive, processes both known and on the ephemeral
cusp of coming into being.
*******************************************************************************
(Bio - reprinted
from The Painting Center catalog)
Jack McWhorter
received an M.F.A. from Kent State University in 1983. McWhorter was awarded
fellowships to attend the Blossom Studio Art Program to study with Elmer
Bischoff, Lynda Benglis, Adja Yunkers, Janet Fish, Walter Darby Bannard and
Alex Katz. He has been a visiting artist at St. Luca School of Art & Architecture,
Brussels, Belgium, The Walworth Barbour American International School in Tel
Aviv, and for the Ohio Arts Council. His paintings and works on paper have been
exhibited widely including solo and group exhibitions in Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Columbus, Chicago, Flagstaff, New York, Ventura, New Orleans, Beijing, Chengdu,
Shijiazhuang, St. Louis, Brussels, Leuven, Overijse, Paris, Glasgow, Tel Aviv
and Siena. Since 2000, McWhorter has
been Associate Professor of Painting and Coordinator of the Art Department at
Kent State University at Stark. He lives and works in Akron with his wife and
2 sons.
PHOTOS, from top
(oil paintings on canvas, 2017): Witch of
Atlas; Surveyor’s Map; Serpent Lightning
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