MARC KATANO
New Paintings
June 2 - July 16, 2005
BIOGRAPHY
PRESS RELEASE
Katano’s
recent canvases reveal the artist’s preoccupation with the mark-making
process and the opportunities it provides for the creation of a
controlled, ordered, and coherent form of invented imagery.
The paintings are composed of a matrix of repeated and layered
ellipses reduced to their linear outline and rendered in a limited palette
of black, white, and gray.
The form resembles a collapsed pair of parentheses and is the
natural “C” and “D” movement of the arm and wrist, the artist’s
calligraphic stroke.
The
leaf-shape is a recognizable theme in Katano’s work and the new
paintings demonstrate a significant departure from earlier explorations of
this form, previously rendered with earth tones and organic hues.
However, these works continue to exhibit the artist’s signature
optical surfaces composed of superimposed stylized forms that give the
illusion of depth and movement.
The carefully cultivated line of Katano’s gestural mark is
wielded energetically, resulting in a spontaneous yet refined feeling to
the work.
While reflective of nature, this imagery is specifically inspired
by the simple black-and-white lines of Kanji characters, and the resulting
works are evocative of traditional Japanese painting.