Gary Lang | BLUELIGHT

“Gary Lang is a treasured friend. His personal history includes a religious conviction that speaks to his chosen vision. He makes paintings with as much a detailed and layered history of where he has been as they are the singular and sweeping vision of where he has arrived. The works explore continents in the world of visual thought. They are to be entered.” – James Turrell, 1997

Quint Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by artist Gary Lang, which will open on Saturday, April 16th from 6-8pm with a public reception. The artist will be in attendance.

Gary Lang is a prolific artist, creating work in a vein of repetition that is similar to the practice of meditation. Once one enters the visual world of Gary Lang, there is a vast universe to be explored. In his most recent series – BLUELIGHT, these seemingly mechanical paintings are a concentration on color, light, and form. Each painterly circular line is carried out with immense detail and thoroughness. These hand-painted layers trick the eye with slight gradients that create optical illusions. It is as if the viewer’s eyes become a tuning fork for the occipital lobe, which then undulates upon the viewer’s perception. Furthermore, each color and hue in these dazzling paintings interacts with the next to hit all notes in perfect harmony.

Lang has stated that he is completely present while making the lines in his paintings, however he doesn’t inspect them thoroughly until he has completed the painting. The paintings are made with great patience and they require the viewer to explore their own visual perception. While expressing a revelatory experience while viewing a Paul Klee painting as a young man, Lang said in a 2013 interview:

“What painting meant, for me, it’s about the transference of humanity, so if you’re not present in the moment that you make contact with that surface, you’re not really… it’s not a love affair. (sic) It’s not so much as what you see; it operates differently. That’s why looking through books is not the way to know about art, you have to saddle up next to a painting.”

Gary Lang is an internationally exhibited artist, including a recent solo exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art. Originally from Los Angeles, CA he 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 has a long relationship with Quint Gallery, with the first of several solo exhibitions in 1982. Lang’s work belongs in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; 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. Lang currently lives and works in Ojai, CA.