NAVIGATION PAINTINGS by Michael Childress

Posted by: Yellow peril gallery

MICHAEL CHILDRESS
NAVIGATION PAINTINGS

February 15 – March 17, 2013

Opening Reception:
Friday, February 15, 2013, 6PM – 9PM

Gallery Hours:
Thursday + Friday, 3PM – 8PM
Saturday + Sunday, 12PM – 5PM
Other days by appointment.

Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present NAVIGATION PAINTINGS, a collection of seven new paintings by Michael Childress. This show runs from Friday, 15 February to Sunday, 17 March 2013. The exhibition is the second in a two-part series of emerging artist exhibitions focusing on Modes of Sight curated by Marcel McVay.

While gorgeous and saturated abstract compositions, Michael Childress’ new body of paintings offer a whole lot more than just a picture plane. As both beautiful objects and ephemeral tools, Navigation Paintings can activate an expanded and embodied quality of seeing. The artist extracts our exploratory and imaginative motivations as described in a brief statement:

“This series of seven paintings was created on the concept of a seven pointed compass. They propose a frame of reference for the viewer onto an ideal plane. Both landscape and diagram, the image attempts to represent movement through space. The construction of the abstract image is in itself a navigation. All seven paintings are intended to be seen as if looking out in different directions as the painter, and now the viewers, orient themselves within a larger synthetic space.”

Mike Childress’ Navigation Paintings deal with a sort of double sight – as ‘both diagram and landscape’ they are abstract and literal constructions of space and movement. The experience of looking at a diagram is rather specific; the surface of the diagram recedes, creating a second, virtual image of what it represents – it is abstract. Combining the literal reconstruction of space characteristic of landscape makes this experience something like looking at a map. Where maps are representations of actual space – the space Navigation Paintings refers to is virtual. Viewing the work becomes practice in constructing and, with the artist’s painted instruction, navigating the virtual space through the planes of each canvas. The process of visualization meshes with the experience of observational vision to create a refracted and virtual mode of sight.

About Michael Childress
Michael Childress currently lives and works in Northampton Massachusetts. He received his BFA with a concentration in photography from The University of Massachusetts, where he developed a concept-driven approach to art making that ranged from photographic documentation, screen printing, site specific installation and drawing. His recent abstract work engages with ideas of chaos, control, and the human experience of perception and interpretation.

About Marcel McVay
Marcel McVay currently lives and works in Providence, RI. With a recent BA in Art+Technology from Hampshire College, Marcel cultivates an understanding of Art, its history and its display as a cultural technology whose contemporary field blurs the borders between creative endeavor and technological process. As gallery manager at Yellow Peril Gallery and art director at COLLECT magazine, he works to carve out stages dedicated to the rich community of artists in Providence and beyond.

About Yellow Peril Gallery
YELLOW PERIL GALLERYis a contemporary art gallery located at The Plant, a historic mill complex in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The Gallery strives to foster modern art critiques on popular culture and society from established and emerging artists in the United States and abroad. We aspire to exhibit provocative and visually arresting artwork created specifically to ignite conversations long after viewers have left the building. Artists that we represent share our commitment to social responsibility, and a percentage from the sale of all artwork is donated to a charitable organization of the Artists’ choice. For more info about future exhibitions, visit www.yellowperilgallery.com.

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If you’d like more information about this press release, or to schedule an interview with MICHAEL CHILDRESS, contact Marcel McVay at +1 917 543 4503 or marcel@yellowperilgallery.com.