Lynn Talbot
17 Nov - 23 Dec 2011
LYNN TALBOT
No Consequences
17 November – 23 December, 2011
The words, “Love of money and nothing else will destroy Sparta,” occupy a grid above a still-life tableaux of fruits, spent matches, empty bottles, and currency in Lynn Talbot’s painting, Oracular Warning. According to legend, these words came from the Oracle of Delphi in response to the question “What enemy will destroy us?” These words can apply equally to contemporary culture and reveal a pointed aspect to Talbot’s recent work.
Her new paintings continue to propose a visual and metaphorical dialogue between realism and abstraction, between historical and contemporary painting; in them realistic, small-scale still life tableaux share the canvas with formal shapes and text. Talbot’s still life technique and imagery recalls Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Spanish and Dutch painters, as well as the tradition of American still life and trompe l’oeil painting. Juxtaposed against that are highly chromatic, geometric shapes and patterning, with text more fully incorporated into the most recent paintings. A painting bearing the exhibition’s title, No Consequences, suggests the outcome for participants of recent dubious, at best, financial, political, and environmental activities. Below these words is an arrangement of fruits with a large cantaloupe at the center, an orange, and a white peach suspended above the rest, all representing our solar system. Another painting, Time for a Change, suggests activity in contrast to the static objects.
These paintings explore the psychological continuity between observable and unobservable reality, and express Talbot’s interest in how the still life tradition uses the seemingly static and unchanging nature of still-life objects to highlight, by contrast, the actual nature of unceasing change and, through perceptual shifts, the illusory nature of existence and solidity. “In these paintings I hope to expose the fundamental parity between realism and abstraction, and between the objectified and the subjective nature of the world.” (Talbot) This will be Talbot’s third exhibition at Pierogi.
No Consequences
17 November – 23 December, 2011
The words, “Love of money and nothing else will destroy Sparta,” occupy a grid above a still-life tableaux of fruits, spent matches, empty bottles, and currency in Lynn Talbot’s painting, Oracular Warning. According to legend, these words came from the Oracle of Delphi in response to the question “What enemy will destroy us?” These words can apply equally to contemporary culture and reveal a pointed aspect to Talbot’s recent work.
Her new paintings continue to propose a visual and metaphorical dialogue between realism and abstraction, between historical and contemporary painting; in them realistic, small-scale still life tableaux share the canvas with formal shapes and text. Talbot’s still life technique and imagery recalls Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Spanish and Dutch painters, as well as the tradition of American still life and trompe l’oeil painting. Juxtaposed against that are highly chromatic, geometric shapes and patterning, with text more fully incorporated into the most recent paintings. A painting bearing the exhibition’s title, No Consequences, suggests the outcome for participants of recent dubious, at best, financial, political, and environmental activities. Below these words is an arrangement of fruits with a large cantaloupe at the center, an orange, and a white peach suspended above the rest, all representing our solar system. Another painting, Time for a Change, suggests activity in contrast to the static objects.
These paintings explore the psychological continuity between observable and unobservable reality, and express Talbot’s interest in how the still life tradition uses the seemingly static and unchanging nature of still-life objects to highlight, by contrast, the actual nature of unceasing change and, through perceptual shifts, the illusory nature of existence and solidity. “In these paintings I hope to expose the fundamental parity between realism and abstraction, and between the objectified and the subjective nature of the world.” (Talbot) This will be Talbot’s third exhibition at Pierogi.