Enclosed within each of my works is an undisclosed thing, a secret. Sometimes, it is a latent action that one discovers through touch: a lever, button, or crank is pulled, pushed, or turned, and the work responds in some small, often counter-intuitive way. A paper bag at the top of Panter, for example, unexpectedly collapses and re-inflates when a metal handle attached to the side of its cardboard base is moved. At other times, the unannounced thing is a physical object—a set of thematically linked paintings, say—or a hidden space concealed within a work’s interior. Often, the exact dimensions—and very existence—of the hidden space can be known only imperfectly or merely guessed at. Thus Map Room, which features a closed wooden box displayed next to a photograph an industrial interior, perhaps a warehouse, invites one to draw conclusions about the box’s contents, none of which can be confirmed.
In the poem Go, Youth James Tate writes, “Some mysteries are better left unsolved. Others are dreary, distasteful, and can disarrange a shadow into a thing of unspeakable beauty.” It is a description of an incandescent inner world, one that is enfolded within, and unfolds onto, the real. It is also, not coincidentally, an admonition against disclosure, against uncovery. My project, likewise, argues for the primacy of the interior, the imperfectly known, and the merely guessed at.
EXHIBITIONS
One-Man Shows
"Views on Wannsee," Gartenhaus, American Acacemy, Berlin, Germany Novemver 2021
“New Landscapes,” Hudson River Gallery, Iowa City, IA November 2019
“Lemon Box,” Public Space One, Iowa City, IA, October 2017
“New Paintings,” Hudson River Gallery Iowa City, IA, April 2017
“Small Landscapes,” Hudson River Gallery Iowa City, IA, May 2015
“Bat Parts, MFA Sculpture Exhibition,” University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, May 2014
“New Paintings,” Hudson River Gallery, Iowa City, IA, May 10 – June 8, 2013
“Middle Ground: New Paintings,” Hudson River Gallery, Iowa City, IA,
April 15 – May 28, 2011
“Small Paintings,” Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA, August 29 – October 20, 2010
“Bluer and More Distant: New Paintings, Hudson River Gallery, Iowa City, IA, April 12 – May 16, 2009
“Gathering Light: New Paintings,” Crane Collection, Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, October 13 – November 10 2007
“At First Light: New Paintings,” Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA, June 2007
“Other Vistas: New Paintings,” Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA, June – July 2006
“From the Berkshires to Monhegan,” Crane Collection, Wellesley, MA, March 2005
“Found Worlds: New Paintings,” Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA, July 2004
“Small Paintings,” Vermont Fine Art, Stowe, VT, June 2004
“Light of Day: Paintings,” The Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, MA, June 2003
Group Shows
“Frank Mason: Artist and Teacher,” Mary Bryant Gallery, Jeffersonville, VT, June 2017
“Mixed Bag: Sculpture Graduate Show,” University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, November 18 – 25, 2011
“All Paintings Great and Small,” Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, CT, November 2006 – January 2007
Class exhibition, Ecole de Albert de Fois, Les Cerqueux sous Passouvant, France, October 2006
“All Paintings Great and Small,” Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, CT, November 2005
“The Sky Above,” Mark Gruber Gallery, New Paltz, NY, July – September 2005
“Art Scholarship Show,” Vermont Fine Art, February 2005
“Mountains High, Rivers Deep,” Mark Gruber Gallery, New Paltz, NY, July 2004