Froelick Gallery is proud to present "Connect", our 11th solo exhibit by Laura Ross-Paul. In these paintings, Ross-Paul examines those things that vie for our focus in contemporary life and the ensuing interactions between people, place and ubiquitous mobile electronic devices. For the artist, these machines represent “a quickening of the collective consciousness”, and she finds fascination in the specific posture of a person talking in to a mobile phone or writing a text message; of particular interest is the soft illumination these devices cast on a face in darkness.
During a recent tour of the Prado, the British Museum and other European collections, Ross-Paul rediscovered a love for painterly mark-making and light-evoking effects which have greatly informed this body of work- she treats the glow emanating from a phone or laptop with the same reverence and delicacy the painters of the past reserved for the light of a cathedral window or a halo. In using centuries-old techniques of oil and wax on canvas to depict modern modes of communication, Ross-Paul traces a distinct path from her contemporary subjects to those of her artistic forebears.
First Thursday reception May 3, 5 to 8 pm
First Thursday reception May 3, 5 to 8 pm
Houston-based painter Terrell James returns to Froelick Gallery with her new exhibit, "Troupe". Continuing to explore the rich territory of color relationships, James’ gestural abstract canvases have a quality both playful and intellectual; she displays a spontaneity and freshness that are the result of a strong intuitive sense. At once solid and fluid, an impression of motion- roiling or glacial- is apparent. Cloudlike blots of warm and cool color vacillate between opacity and transparency; at times a hard outline encloses or defines a swatch; sparse structural lines fortify dense compositions of unexpected chromatic harmonies. While avoiding specific content, these works are informed by the artist’s own environmental and emotional sources, and they in turn invite the viewer’s personal experiences to join in the dialogue.
