MUTE: (Adjective)

By adhering feathers to wood panels with different colors of acrylic, Gregory Coates has created a series of paintings with the ability to immediately charm the viewer, (at Magnam Projects through March). From downy comforters to animal fur to feather boas, the viewer is immediately reminded of pleasures of warmth and luxury. Yet, as you move into the gallery, past the white, grey and shimmery blue paintings, the mood changes from an almost baroque frivolity to something much darker; as the work becomes deeper in tonality, more profound meanings rise to the surface.

Feathers inherently imply lightness. But the feathers in these works have been rendered stiff with paint. In some of the pieces the feathers are evenly distributed and fully cover the support, in others the feathers are massed together – revealing areas of painted wood – areas which seem vulnerable and unattractive in comparison. The manner in which the feathers are put on the panels divulges what we imagine to be the artist’s state of mind while making them, generating a strong emotional undertone.

The form of the rectangle is strongly emphasized in these pieces, such that they function more like sculptural blocks, hanging on the wall. In the press release, Coates refers to the paintings as memorials, and each work bears as its title a first name, presumably of the person to whom it is dedicated. With this in mind, the simple rectangular forms take on a somber elegance, and the atmosphere of the show an elegiac tranquility.

While one color dominates each piece, the paintings are not monochrome. The paint is layered and built up before the feathers are applied and veils of blue hide under white, veins of red can be discerned within black. It is hard not to think “tar and feather” when confronted with white feathers fixed into place with black paint, with traces of red underneath. This thought ushers in a specter of cruelty, the weight of history; yet, it is the only piece with that reference. With an attitude of leniency, it becomes another muffled voice within a soundless chorus, when the show is viewed as a whole.

MUTE: (Adjective), Gregory Coates, February 15 – March 29, Magnan Projects, 317 Tenth Avenue, New York, (Chelsea)

~ by sheriwills on February 28, 2008.