Opens Thurs, May 2, 6-8p:
“Recent Work”
Philip Taaffe
Luhring Augustine Gallery, 531 W24th St., NYC
In this current body of work, the artist’s first solo show of paintings in New York in six years, Taaffe returns to some of his familiar tropes but employs them in new, previously unseen ways. Sources include natural history illustrations, Roman mosaics, microscopic imaging of Viking artifacts, Syrian embroidery pattern books, masks from Mongolia and the Far East, and devices drawn from calligraphy and book design. Optical vibrancy and visual energy underlie these images, reconnecting abstraction to the natural world and exploring the convergence of the optical and conceptual. “I think the power and possibilities for painting today has to do with binding it to a cultural legacy,” says Taaffe. “Painting is where these symbolic languages or forms somehow crystallize and reveal their ancestry — and that in turn shows a certain sense of future possibility.” - thru Jun 15
