Cristi Rinklin at FP3 Boston

My previous mentor Cristi Rinklin has a wonderful show up at FP3 in Boston. I went to the opening this past Saturday. It's up until August 15th, so if you live or are visiting Boston you should go see her work. It's outstanding.

Here are some details:
Cristi Rinklin (www.cristirinklin.com)
"Boundless"
FP3 Gallery, Fort Point, Boston MA
May 8th - August 15th 2009
Curated by James Hull
Press Release (PDF)

Artist Statement

Here is my most current artist statement. It is a continual work in progress. This still isn't "it" yet, but it's getting closer...

The space between you and me, is it really empty? Consider all the unseen bits of data: radio, television, cell phones, wireless routers, email, instant messaging, the Internet. Our air is filled with waves of electrical currents, digital impulses, and magnetic forces. Also consider that everything we think and do as humans is enabled by electrical signals running through our bodies. How does our invisible energy field mix and flow with the energy field swirling around us? What might space look like if all that energy collapsed into one plane of reality?

My paintings use sources from computer animation; a technological process of fragmentation; and the language of abstract painting to depict a non-verbal, non-physical environment that characterizes a relationship between form and formlessness. Objects emerge and dissipate. Layers of data collapse into one another constructing collaborative spaces of interlacing dimensions. Everything in the picture plane is in total flux.

In these paintings line and geometry is woven together constructed of thousands of tiny brushstrokes of opaque, saturated colors. As individual marks assert themselves they are instantaneously absorbed back into the collective representing a never-ending cycle, where energy vibrates into form and form breaks down into indiscernible particles of energy; where the sum of all its parts creates an ineffable whole.

Coming out of hiding...

Well, the past few months have been pretty intense. Writing my thesis was no small task. And I only made matters worse for myself--I had a complete draft written and decided it was the wrong story, and started over with only a few weeks left before it was due. I'm now just waiting for the final review with my advisor and hopefully will spend this weekend putting the finishing touches on it and sending it on its way.

With all of my energy focused on writing the thesis, I just did not have the time to keep this blog up to date at the same time. Perhaps now I can begin to post on a slightly more regular basis.

While I spent the last few months writing, I certainly did not stop my work in the studio. I think I would wither away and die if I couldn't paint. So below are a few shots of the work I've been completing.

Below is the finished piece "Matrix IV" that I had at the last residency. I did quite a bit more work to it. I concentrated on "weaving" the layers and colors together. I feel it was successful in meeting my intentions for the piece.


Matrix IV, acrylic on paper, 55 x 110", 2009.

Below is a piece that I am currently working on titled "Matrix V". It is my intention to have this finished for the thesis exhibition in June. Although, I'm currently working through some obstacles that I have inherently set up for myself. Color being the biggest issue. It's amazing what these paintings teach me about visual perception, and the mechanics of perceptual abstraction - especially when it comes to color. I will carefully mix a color, make test swatches and be confident it's the correct choice. However, when it actually goes down on the paper, mixed in with the field of other colors it's properties change entirely. The last color I put on is a medium pink but reads as a cream color, almost white (seen threaded in the right hand side of the painting). As always, I will be interested to see where this one lands.


Matrix V (unfinished), acrylic on paper, 55 x 110", 2009.