November 2011

Jonas Gerard Fine Art in Asheville, NC, Feature New Fluid Works

Jonas Gerard Fine Art in Asheville, NC, is presenting the exhibit, Fluid Poetry, featuring a new series of works by Jonas Gerard, on view through Nov. 20, 2011.

Expanding on his various ways of applying paints, Gerard experiments on a new path. Fluid acrylic paints and pigmented inks spill and slide onto the canvas, ebbing and flowing in freely chosen direction. Streaming in rivers and tides, this new combination of mediums writes its own story, creates its own history. “Poetry without words, rhyming colors on canvas”.

Gerard has a continuous and impulsive need to search for new ways to dig within, discovering new paths to the cosmic reservoir of creative energy. His new series Fluid Poetry shows the rich fruit of that search. In it he gives up the brush and allows the paint to join the canvas using water as a vehicle. This is not watercolor, but flowing fluid acrylic pigments applied with squeeze bottles and cups directly onto either stretched canvas or open unstretched canvas, where the colors flow with the undulating curves of their new home.

Inspired by the pioneering work of Paul Jenkins, the mission is one of introspection and of discovering the amazing potential and layers that exist within the psyche. Gerard views abstraction as the only free method to uncover those subtle layers, revealing the boundless cosmic potential through absolutely astonishing colorful vistas.

“I remember how in the film Avatar, the characters could fly in and out of realms of consciousness. When I saw that I said to myself, “I want to paint that transformation… I want to travel in and out of worlds of color, creating the illusion of 3D, 4D and even more unlimited dimensions” said Gerard. “My aim is to focus the viewer’s attention into those realms and allow them to visit those inner planes.”

Gerard uses gravity, forced air, curved blades and even his own hands to channel the fluid paint into motion… always listening to the colors (that seem to have a mind of their own). The flowing paint mixes with other wet layers creating explosions and implosions of moods and visions.

The work is done in a totally intuitive, deep listening, and nonintellectual frame of being. The equilibrium between transparency and opacity, between soft edge and hard edge, between light and dark, positive and negative occurs with minimal guidance as the painting paints itself.

Gerard is basically a self-taught artist. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1941, of French and Brazilian ancestry. He has now established in a 5,000 square-foot studio and gallery in Asheville.

Works by Gerard have been included in the collections of Smithsonian Institution, The World Bank, Citibank International, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL, and The University of California Berkeley Museum.

Gerard’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Slater-Price Fine Art, Soho, NY, NationsBank Sky Gallery, Downtown Miami, FL, Capitol Gallery, Tallahassee, FL, Jeanine Cox Fine Art, Miami Beach, FL, Henri Gallery, Washington, DC, ArtiZen Fine Art, Dallas, TX, Mary Bell Gallery, Chicago, IL, and Judith Wolov Gallery, Boston, MA.

On Nov. 12 & 13, during the River Arts District Studio Stroll Gerard will offers a Painting Performance accompanied by the live music of The Billy Sea, from 2-3:30pm each day.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/350-7711 or visit (www.jonasgerard.com).

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