earl iselin: stacked
Exhibition Dates: november 2 - 27, 2021
Reception: Thursday, november 4, 5pM - 8pm
The Painting Center is pleased to present the exhibition Stacked featuring recent works by painter Earl Iselin, on view from November 2 - 27, 2021 in the Project Room.
Throughout his painting career Iselin has been stacking and combining imagery as a recurrent trait. It started early as he experimented by drawing an image and replicating it on the same page. He carried this out in abstraction while developing a color relationship for his work. Iselin continually crosses the line between images that are purely abstract and those that are representational.
Partially Buried 1, 2, and 3 are a painted boundary in the development of Iselin’s work. As an undergrad at Kent State University, he often visited Robert Smithson’s Partially Buried Woodshed. He has described the experience as being buried alive. The work’s intent was that existentially strong. Iselin divided the art world as pre-Woodshed and post. He tends to see painting as a means of discovering the present beyond the demands of the past.
As a practice, the Woodshed offered the concept of visual development akin to the efforts many jazz musicians make in the discovery of their sound. It is the practice of woodshedding where the possible leads to greater possibility. The end result for Iselin is that while he may not be entirely comfortable in the art world, he can be comfortable in a shed of his own making. There he began to make a crossover relationship between the twelve-tone musical scale and color which he laid out in a series of twelve-inch square grids. That gave way to a series of other images. The pairing and stacking of these were for Iselin, like finding creative lighting in a bottle. The visual energy is a creative stimulus for ongoing work. Stack 1, which is not represented in this exhibit is part of Iselin’s personal reservoir for visual development.
Stacks 3, 4, and 2 as they are exhibited started as a year-long experimental compendium of visual possibilities. The results are sets of distinct realities existing in direct relationship to each other. This creates a visual conversation within the work that is not predictable. Clearfield and Clarion are combination works that create internal conversations between multiple color fields and shifting scale. This creates more possibility for the viewer to find art in the painting.
For more information, visit www.iselinpainting.com.
