Untitled

2013 - Painting (Painting)

James Collins

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These two large format untitled paintings by James Collins feature the artist’s hallmark technique, which transforms abstraction into an optical illusion that creates dimension, space, and mass. These particular paintings expand on the optical illusion referred to as a moiré pattern. Moiré (or fringe patterns as they are also called) are known in mathematics, physics, and art as a type of interference pattern that can be produced when a partially opaque ruled pattern with transparent gaps is overlaid on another similar pattern. Through a process of accretion and subtraction, Collins layers different colored paints, then employing unconventional tools, scrapes the layers into a desired pattern while still wet. These works feature refined iterations of this process – simple horizontally striated patterns, one in black and the other in red – that transform the flat surfaces into multidimensional spaces replete with edges, corners, and cliffs.

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James Collins works with acrylic and oil to create the illusion of dimensionality in highly graphic paintings. Relying on a precise chemical balance, Collins allows his materials to dictate their own outcomes. Through this technique, he is able to create entire paintings in one sitting that explore dimension, space, texture, mass, and volume. Collins’s work continues his exploration of Op-Art techniques while producing atmospheric and mesmerizing paintings. His goal, he has said, is not to create new imagery but to breathe new life into painting by giving art-making materials command over the resulting artwork. As such, the process of painting becomes the content of the work itself.

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Colors:

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• procedure.n.01
• materiality.n.02
• optics.n.01
• illusion.n.01
• surface.n.01