November Issue 2000
UNC Charlotte's Cone Gallery Shows Works by J. Michael Simpson
UNC
Charlotte's Cone Center Gallery is presenting an exhibition entitled,
Change in Place, featuring paintings by J. Michael Simpson,
through Dec. 4, 2000.
Simpson makes large-scale oil paintings out of abstracted images of turbulent rivers and rocky terrain. Within the river paintings the tenacious flow of water rips across canvases toward unseen points while his paintings of rock terrain, strewn with eroded stones, form precarious ledges and blind arroyos. These images are severely cropped forcing the viewers to confront and examine the power and vulnerability of these simple, natural forms. They are painted in limited and sometimes monochrome palettes of intense reds, blues, or yellows that create haunting auras about each piece. The paint is applied with gestural strokes that loosely describe these form and spaces while simultaneously giving an abstract and pulsing energy to the surface of the paintings.
As if written by some "elan vital", each painting seems to speak of a thousand geological changes that are suddenly discovered in a single protracted moment. These ciphers of "change in time" are written across large-scale tableaus that tend to overwhelm the viewer. This attribute recalls the nineteenth century aesthetic of the sublime; something Simpson wants as part of his work, but chooses to mix it up with 21th century concerns.
Simpson is a believer in the sublime. He thinks of it, whether in art or nature, as moments that can lift the human mind from a sense of awe to glimpses of wisdom and inspiration. He sees it as a necessary aspect of human existence, but also a positive connection between nature and human kind. He says, " ...in a land where our mental and physical landscapes are framed and faceted into small and smaller spaces, the sublime experience may be as endangered as the environment," It is his hope that through his painting the sublime experience will be seen as, " ...a cultural and spiritural necessity for an evolving present and uncertain future."
Simpson's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally in NC, SC, AL, TN, MS, FL, GA, LA, TX, MO, MI, IL, NY, ND, NE and AZ. He has been a lecture at Universities in AL, MI, NC and SC.
For more info check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call 704/687-4479.
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