Lane Twitchell: Here & There

Solo exhibition

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Lane Twitchell. The exhibition will be on view February 17 – March 19, 2005. Here & There is the artist’s second one-person exhibition with the gallery. In 2004 Twitchell was featured in the museum exhibition “American Paradigms: David Opdyke and Lane Twitchell,” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

At the core of the works in Here & There are single sheets of paper, ranging in size from 9 to 72 inches square, that have been folded and cut in the manner of children’s snowflakes. All of these works are part of a dual series of paintings begun by the artist in 2002, Godseye and Interchange. The works in the Godseye series are rectilinear in composition like the interlocking grids of New York City streets. The Interchange images refer to the interstate freeway system that connects the contiguous 48 states.

The artist was originally drawn to folded and cut paper as a means of depicting a multiplicity of images within the same picture plane. What emerged from his experiments was a disarmingly decorative technique with pictorial potential far beyond his initial concerns. Working within the limitations of the folded sheet of paper, the artist intuited a connection to artistic practices that exploited the characteristic properties of materials, specifically those of 1960’s process-based Conceptual art. As a consequence of this exploration, the Godseye images are frequently concerned with the artistic and cultural dynamics of New York City.

In this technique the artist also found a means to address his upbringing in Salt Lake City. As the descendant of Mormon pioneers, Twitchell was raised in an atmosphere quickened by spiritual drama. Works in the Interchange series often address this personal history by reflecting on religion in general and Mormonism in particular. Works from both series suggest Twitchell’s intention to provide portals into America’s hidden fissures, both secular and sacred. His work seeks its visions by connecting signs and symbols, dates and places – finding in this semiotic debris images both startlingly familiar and strange.

Lane Twitchell was born in 1967 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He studied at the University of Utah and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He recently completed a public commission for the City of Chicago and was a New York Foundation for the Arts grant recipient in 2003.