S T A R S | Gary Lang

These recent large-scale works represent an evolution of Lang’s process: S T A R S are a shift to a new shape as well as medium after years of painting meditative gradations of concentric circles. This transition arrived through the pandemic’s unrest, a lack of peace which led Lang to invigorate a new shape and discover a boundless power in the anatomy of a four-pointed star. Central to his meditative style of painting also exists an intensely physical process, which led Lang to further redefine his presence in a new process. S T A R S were conceived as digital paintings, then uniquely printed onto a shaped substrate with permanent UV acrylic pigment, a synthesis of the digital and physical gesture.

The S T A R S continue the concentric concept, with a source point that reverberates beyond the surface. Like modernist altarpieces, the patterns of Lang’s STARS produce an intense optical effect, as layers oscillate between vigorously saturated hard edges and gradients of subdued tones. While he continues his “CIRCLE” paintings, Lang currently gravitates toward new technologies to evolve his content and maximize visual stimulus. At the end of the day, Lang says he always looks to evolve an “energized icon, excited about itself.”

Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Gary Lang studied at California Institute of Art and Yale University. In the 1970’s he lived in Barcelona on a Fulbright/Hayes Travel Grant and lived in New York and Los Angeles before settling in Ojai, CA. Lang’s work belongs in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Santa Monica, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,; Portland Museum of Art, ME; and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, amongst others. 

Photos: Philipp Scholz Rittermann