Boyce Cummings @ Winkleman / Plus Ultra Gallery
Thursday, November 30th, 2006
Winkleman / Plus Ultra Gallery is very pleased to present “Versus,” the first New York solo exhibition by Boyce Cummings.
In seven new paintings and a large mixed-media wall installation, Cummings explores the workings of conflict in both visual art and human endeavors. Whether “high vs. low,” “abstraction vs. realism,” or “formalism vs. narrative,” themes and constructs of visual art parallel personal conflicts in our day-to-day lives—such as “man vs. nature,” nature vs. machine,” “winning vs. losing,” etc. Cummings blends these parallel arenas, resolving elements that we expect not to work together through an exquisite sense of composition. Representational and abstract elements within Cummings’ paintings demand to be connected on an experiential human level. But they consistently defy any sensible narrative, eventually leading the viewer to the realization that it’s the very fact that the elements are at odds with one another that serves as the glue that holds the compositions together.
On one wall of the gallery, Cummings has also collaged drawings, framed and unframed, with knickknacks and other found objects, forming an extensive installation that serves as a legend to the vocabulary of his paintings as well as its own expressionistic composition. With a broad range of styles and subjects, his drawings are mixed to reflect his personal choices but—like his paintings—the juxtapositions eventually lead the viewer along just so far before some compositional roadblock places their growing narrative in limbo, highlighting the experiential impact of conflict itself.
Boyce Cummings received his BFA and MFA from the School of Visual Arts. As a 2005/2006 Rome Prize Winner, he spent a year in Italy, but now lives and works in New York.
For more information, please call 212-643-6152 or email info@winkleman.com.
Boyce Cummings
Versus
November 30, 3006 to January 6, 2007
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 30, 6-8 pm
Winkleman / Plus Ultra Gallery
637 West 27th Street (Ground Floor)
New York, NY
10001 T: 212.643.3152 F: 212.643.2040
info@winkleman.com
www.winkleman.com
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 11am to 6pm or by appointment.
Directions: C or E train to 23rd Street. Walk North to 27th Street. Plus Ultra is between 11th and 12th Avenues.