Starting December 8th, the George Adams Gallery will present 'Flat Earth Conspiracy,' a group exhibition featuring paintings by Kathryn Goshorn, Lino Lago, Paul Rouphail and Alexi Worth.
Rather than use conventional methods of perspective typical of representational painting, these four artists distort space and undermine the concept of 'surface' of a painting as something flat. In the case of each painter, space may or may not be logical, forms may or may not be modeled and the distinction between foreground and background is blurred. The ‘conspiracy’ here is an agreement among the four that the principles of illusionistic space, as in the creation of depth on a flat surface – is open to question.
This is especially true for Alexi Worth, who simplifies form and employs a reduced palate allowing his images to slowly coalesce into recognizable shapes. By using stencils and layering, the interplay between edge and volume creates an optical illusion, simultaneously flattening and exaggerating space. Lino Lago and Paul Rouphail both make explicit use of photographic imagery by transposing a technique of digital collaging into pure paint. Lago pictures an aggregate of cut-out, digitally sourced images piled up and disposed of in a virtual ‘Dump’ of pop-culture and current events. Rouphail interjects his paintings with motifs variously appropriated from the digital realm or classical painting that are ‘pasted’ on. He plays with focus and trompe d’oeil effects to create layers within his paintings that allude to a window or glass. The most extreme examples are Kathryn Goshorn's paintings, which move beyond the limits of painting into sculpture. She builds up and carves in the surface of her paintings with various materials to create bas-reliefs that can be convincingly realistic. The result is both at odds with, and reinforcing of, the images she paints.