Holding Pattern Subject Story

Enlarge: Installation View at Eva G. Farris Gallery

Eva G. Farris Gallery
333 Thomas More Parkway
Crestview Hills, KY 41017
(859) 341-5800

August 29th – September 20th
Opening Reception

September 7th, 2012  4pm-7pm

Gallery Hours
Mon-Thurs 7:45am – 10pm   |   Fri 7:45am-4:15pm
Sat 10am-4pm   |   Sun 2pm-8pm

The Eva G. Farris Gallery at Thomas More College is pleased to announce a comprehensive survey of recent works by Bryce Hudson. Hudson is a widely exhibited and published contemporary artist living in the United States with exhibition history throughout the country and in Southeast Asia. The bulk of his work deals with social issues surrounding ideas of race, beauty, gender identity politics and stereotypes in contemporary society. The weapons in his arsenal; bold color, pattern, composition, symbolism and digital manipulation of preexisting imagery. Hudson’s esthetic is inspired by historical art movements; Modernism, Post-Modernism, Minimalism, Pop, Neo-Plasticism, Constructivism and Suprematism  — yet the work itself is inspired by life in contemporary society. This exhibition will include recent paintings, serigraphs and contemporary photo-based multimedia assemblages.

“Experimentation and evolution are essential to the development of all contemporary artists… If I had to reduce why I am an artist down to its essence it would be that my worth is based on the ability to grow and change with my surroundings, to inspire transformation and spark dialogue and thought in others, to always be mindful of what surrounds me (abstract or concrete) and to always formulate, reinterpret and reissue information into my own unique voice.”
— Bryce Hudson

Bryce Hudson’s paintings are as notable for their nuance and sophistication as they are for their compositional drama. His geometric oil and acrylic on canvas paintings can be described as having a certain movement and three-dimensionality while retaining a reductive quality that is general to geometric abstraction. The hard-edged forms are bordered by bright bands of contrasting color of varying angle and width producing multiple fields of form and color that play against one another.

Using a strict geometric language, limited palette and consistent compositional format, Hudson achieves a remarkable diversity within a narrow framework. Often is the case, architectural elements are Hudson’s muse – flipping and dissecting elements, transforming them into a dizzying array of colors and shapes until all context is lost. The surprisingly bright color bands provide a rich contrast to the somber predominant blacks, grays and whites, and add weight and movement to the paintings.

For example, central areas in the paintings, rather than appearing completely static, have a subtle yet rich variety of tones, weight, and illusion of depth or flatness, all achieved by employing directional brushwork and few variations in surface finish. Hudson’s edges are taut and sharp, and there is an inner tensile strength expressed in the forms. The emphatic diagonal movement in his many of the works relates a feeling of containment within the picture frame, and a further implication of spatial depth. The scale of the works ranges widely, from medium-format works on paper to long eight-foot horizontals.