1/21/07 - SHIFTING RELATIONSHIPS

Michael Gibson: Selected works from 2001 through 2007

Michael Gibson's abstractions are the ultimate Rorschach.

Earlier paintings presented softly glowing amoeboids and halos floating on a solid ground, suggestive of deep space. In his most recent works, the Atlanta artist introduces hard-edged but rounded shapes, and the figure-ground relationship is more ambiguous. The shapes variously interlock, overlap and float independently. The smooth, anonymous strokes of enamel paint on Masonite project a flat, mechanistic, silk-screen look.

The paintings are strong and well-made, if not visually endearing. What makes them interesting to me is how different the same imagery appears depending on Gibson's manipulation of the proportions, palette and placement.

"Micro-Macro," with its tan, sand and brown tones and interlocking shapes, brings to mind camouflage. In "Orbifold," whose horizontal rectangle "reads" as a landscape painting, discrete shapes float in a blue plane, like clouds in the sky. The plantlike silhouettes in other pieces look like references to Matisse's cutouts.

Gibson cites Andy Warhol, graffiti artist Kaws and abstract expressionist Clyfford Still as inspirations.

Truly, art is in the eye of the beholder.

Through February 3rd
Fay Gold Gallery.
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.
764 Miami Circle, Atlanta. 404-233-3843.

For more information, please visit Michael Gibson's website.