David Rhodes

As he approached his stint in the Aurobora studio, NY-based artist David Rhodes embarked on a new line of investigation. Abandoning his hard-edged chevron forms, precise linear rhythmic patterns and black and white tonal compositions, Rhodes embraced the uninhibited gesture and began to experiment with fluid mark-making that employed transferring paint onto the composition from one surface to another.  This new approach with his painting opened up unexplored avenues and unknowingly provided a useful point of departure for Rhodes’s new suite of monotypes.

In these new works on paper, Rhodes takes over the entire compositional space in an active and adaptive pace rather than simply relying on his compositions to be formal static objects.  In other words, Rhodes establishes an arena where possibilities exist and thrive for the viewer.  This is a departure from Rhodes’s signature style.  But again, isn’t an artist’s signature style only useful when it becomes a target for obliteration (is this too dramatic?)?  Rhodes knows this and has confidently moved along his shifting ground with purpose.  The results speak for themselves and are evidenced here in the artist’s suite of monotypes.  These works are a signpost that directs us onto a side-road where the artist has migrated, where the unknown has become a welcomed tonic along the way forward.

AUROBORA PROJECT

August/September 2019

COLLECTIONS

Huntington Museum, Los Angeles (US)
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (US)
Uddevalla Kunstmuseum, Uddevalla (SE)
V&A Museum, London (UK)
Alex Katz Foundation, New York (US)
Simmons and Simmons, London (UK)
Centro Cultural Andrax, Mallorca (ES)