William Staples: Under Painting
@ 65Grand
1369 W Grand Ave, Chicago IL
Opening Friday, October 25th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, November 23rd
65GRAND is pleased to present William Staples in Under Painting, his fourth exhibition with the gallery.
As the exhibition’s title implies, these works are created with a measured layering of paint. Dynamic effects of lightness, darkness and overall mood are created by first treating surfaces in darker tones before layering lighter colors on top in a process referred to as “underpainting”. But where traditional academic painting builds up thin layers starting with washes of burnt umber and sienna to create luminosity, Staples thickly lays on deep, dark hues. The paintings’ surfaces are gritty and rough, like gravel roads and stucco walls scraping your eyes while layers of varied hues peek through.
In a turn of phrase, the title also indicates that the artist is, like a young man bewitched by a succubus, under a spell. While professing servitude to a harsh master, Staples has produced lush and vibrant images in a departure from the dark-both in mood and value-in previous work. Trees recalling the structured and grid like abstractions of early Mondrian make homes for birds. In colorful figure studies nude women cavort. Is this the time-honored subject of bathers or is something else going on? Beneath the coats of bright and verdant paint lies that swarthy under painting.
William Staples lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions include “Picture Framing” in 2011 and “Paintings” in 2009 with 65GRAND and “Oooh His Eyes Are Like Submarines” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2005. Group Exhibitions include “GO Brooklyn Open Studios” organized by the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY in 2012; “A Group Show” at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, in 2010; and “Can Bigfoot Get You A Beer?” curated by Anthony Elms and Philip von Zweck, Alogon, Chicago in 2008. Staples work has been featured by Artinfo, Artnet, ArtSlant and Bad at Sports and appeared in the catalog “Universal Experience: Art Life and the Tourist’s Eye” published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
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