MICHAEL HEDGES
In Bloom

Opening Reception: Friday, March 23, 2018, 5:00 - 7:00 PM

On view through April 28, 2018

Michael Hedges employs an expressionist painting approach to explore and resolve color relationships using form and composition. His active and physical application of pigment to the supports keep the surfaces dynamic and colors high energy.


David Richard Gallery, LLC
Santa Fe Venue – 1570 Pacheco Street, Suite E2
Santa Fe, NM 87505
P: 505-983-9555
www.davidrichardgallery.com



David Richard Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming presentation, Michael Hedges, In Bloom, the gallery’s first solo exhibition for the artist. The opening reception is Friday, March 23, 2018 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. The exhibition will remain on view through April 28, 2018 at the Gallery’s Santa Fe venue located at 1570 Pacheco Street, Suite E2, Santa Fe, NM 87505 P: 505-983-9555. A digital catalogue will be available online.

Michael Hedges’ expressionist paintings are as much about energy as they are about color and texture. The energy, both in his physical approach to applying paint to the support as well as the color harmonies across the compositions, activates the surface and the viewer’s experience. Hedges passionately embraces Abstract Expressionism with his own color-based approach to expressionist and gestural abstract painting. According to the artist, his works, “begin as a problem of two or more color relationships to be explored through form”. He then pursues multiple parallel paths to resolve the “problem” on many separate canvases. An example of Hedges’ high energy and process-driven approach to create dynamic surfaces and color combinations. 

This presentation includes recent paintings from 2016 and 2017. Roughly half are painted on natural linen in which Hedges’ approach is a little different than on canvas, revealing the linen support and numerous areas where the pigment is applied in thin brushy strokes to expose the weave and texture. There are still robust areas of saturated pigment applied in his usual thick and impasto strokes. The approach creates a unique surface with textural contrasts, while the color relationships and harmonies are as vibrant as ever. Another interesting aspect of this selection of paintings is the artist’s use of collaged elements. Painted patches of canvas and linen are applied to the painting surfaces to add a specific element of interest and spontaneity, maintaining energy at peak level with unexpected shifts in process. 

About Michael Hedges:

Hedges was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. While in high school he spent two years studying at the Art Institute of Chicago before going on to receive his B.A. in Studio Art from Loras College in Dubuque, IA in 1998. Since graduating from Loras, Hedges has been exhibiting and selling his artwork in the Chicago area, where he lives and works. In addition to gallery exhibitions, his paintings have been presented at the Art Expo Chicago and Art Miami art fairs. Hedges’ artworks hang in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the Chicago area.

About David Richard Gallery:

Since its inception in 2010, David Richard Gallery has produced museum quality exhibitions that feature Post War abstraction in the US. The presentations have addressed specific decades and geographies as well as certain movements and tendencies. While the gallery has long been recognized as an important proponent of post-1960s abstraction—including both the influential pioneers as well as a younger generation of practitioners in this field— in keeping with this spirit of nurture and development the gallery also presents established and very new artists who embrace more gestural and representational approaches to the making of art as well as young emerging artists.

In 2015 David Richard Gallery launched DR Projects to provide a platform for artists of all stripes—international, national, local, emerging and established—to present special solo projects or to participate in unique collaborations or thematic exhibitions. The goal is to offer a fresh look at contemporary art practice from a broad spectrum of artists and presentations. Opening the second location in New York in 2017 exposes the gallery’s artists to new markets, institutions and collectors.

Associated Artist

• Michael Hedges

Associated Exhibitions

• Michael Hedges In Bloom
  March 23, 2018 - June 9, 2018
  MORE INFO

Associated News

• May 13, 2018
  Michael Hedges 'In Bloom'
  International Art Exhibitions, 05/13/2018
  
  


• May 10, 2018
  Michael Hedges: In Bloom
  THE Magazine, 05/10/2018
  Kathryn M Davis
  
  


• March 15, 2018
  Press Release - Michael Hedges "In Bloom"