Monday, May 16, 2016

Moberg Gallery Exhibition

Installation view of "Green Triangle" (2016) Oil on canvas 48 x 60"

Exhibition Dates: April 22 - May 29, 2016

Moberg Gallery 
2921 Ingersoll Avenue 
Des Moines, Iowa 50312 
p. 515-279-9191 


Chicago-based artist Pamela Staker first creates three-dimensional works before painting and collaging her studies of line and color. Though she notes that these do not get literally translated onto the canvas, there are hints of objects and structures amidst her swirling fields. Staker’s abstract landscapes confuse the urban/rural duality. 

Take “Magical Forest (urban construction)”: the mixing of magentas and whites culminate in drips, and a gorgeous, almost lavender wash over the large canvas. And “The Cabin” suggests both a frontal and an aerial view, as if Google Earth were an artist’s abstract view onto a searched-for cabin, here, possibly, a dotted piece collaged into the painting. This yellow, gray and black work suggests the natural world overlaid (-run?) with concrete supplements, and a tree (or is it roads) that appear to become part of both layers. Staker’s play with planar dimensions and multi-perspectival approaches results in geometric emersions and organic immersions that cavort, giving the viewer a palette of light angles and angles of light tempered with the roundness of her loose brush strokes, which places something slightly darker below, beside, and between.

Text by Michaela Mullin 


Installation view of "Abstract Study (ever watchful)" (2015) Oil on canvas 72 x 60"

Installation view of "Abstract Study (swirl)" [on left] (2015) Oil and collage on canvas 60 x 60" --- "Magical Forest (urban construction)" [in middle] (2014) Oil on canvas 70 x 70" --- "The Cabin" [on right] (2016) Oil and collage on canvas 60 x 72"


Installation view of "Abstract Study (green tree)" [on left] (2015) Mixed media collage on paper 33 3/4 x 26 x 1 3/4" --- "Abstract Landscape (sunshine)" [in middle] (2015) Oil on canvas 40 x 48" --- "Abstract Study (swirl)" [on right] (2015) Oil and collage on canvas 60 x 60


Installation view of "Brainstorming" [on left] (2016) Oil on canvas 40 x 60" --- "Urban Landscape" [on right] (2013) Oil and collage on canvas 48 x 60"


Installation view of "Urban Landscape" (2013) Oil and collage on canvas 48x 60"


Installation view of "Abstract Studies (bridge and balance)" (2015) Mixed media collages on canvas 40 3/8 x 32 5/8 x 1 1/4" each




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