10012: The Abstract Vanguard: Ross Bleckner, Alan Cote, Max Gimblett, and Kevin Teare
Kensington, MD.
Pazo Fine Art is pleased to announce 10012: The Abstract Vanguard, a group exhibition featuring works by Ross Bleckner, Alan Cote, Max Gimblett, and Kevin Teare. On view in Kensington, Maryland at 4228 Howard Ave, from September 14 through November 23. An opening reception will take place Saturday, September 14 from 6 to 8 pm.
From the late 1960s to the late ’70s, the 10012 area code (known as SoHo, “south of Houston Street”) was a creative mecca for abstract painters. This exhibition of paintings by Ross Bleckner, Alan Cote, Max Gimblett, and Kevin Teare, frames their mutual studio neighborhood of SoHo, as an anchor for their radical approaches to abstract painting. Across three decades, the artists of this exhibition reinterpret and advance the concerns of abstraction through their investigations of color, line, form, rhythm, and material possibility.
Affordable studio space in the not-yet-desirable neighborhood was crucial to the alchemy of time, space, and resources which afforded artists the opportunity to take risks. In a context rarely available before (and especially since) artists were situated in spacious lofts that welcomed large-scale experimentation, fueled by the energies of countercultural movements percolating in the background. Unburdened by financial restrain, and inspired by new ways of thinking, SoHo’s abstractionists shifted away from the prevailing art movements of Pop and Abstract Expressionism. Their rejection of visual excess took shape in the sparse and austere visual language of Minimalism.
Bound by a fascination with the vocabulary of geometry, whether through relief paintings, shaped canvas, or gestural lines, each artist renders an aesthetic experience which prompts the viewer to engage with fields of shapes and color. Cote’s stark juxtapositions of diagonal lines float amid a plane of color, peppering and dividing the surface with uniform lines of differentiating color. Teare’s relief paintings' horizontal stripes depict geometric compositions of stacked vertical lines rendered through the rocky texture of mortar, evoking the not visible insides of the gallery walls on which the painting hung. Where Teare and Cote harness geometric abstraction in their paintings through the linear, Bleckner and Gimblett’s techniques contrast the angular and hard-edged with the ovular by way of rounded hazes stained on canvas and unbound reinterpretations of the traditionally square canvas.
Where Teare and Cote are particularly interested in harnessing geometric abstraction to create spatial narratives, Bleckner and Gimblett introduce ideas of dematerialization and spiritual influence in their compositions, stemming from the rebellious spirit of SoHo which prompted artists to question established norms both aesthetic and social. This exhibition invites viewers to explore these diverse manifestations of abstraction, all of which root back to the inception point of 10012.
Ross Bleckner (b. 1949, Brooklyn, NY) began his academic career by receiving his BFA from New York University in 1971 and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973. Bleckner has exhibited throughout the United States, being the youngest artist to receive a mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum at the age of 45. He has additionally been showcased in numerous international solo and group exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, CA, Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany, Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, L.A. County Museum in Los Angeles, CA; Kunstmuseum Luzern in Luzern, Switzerland; and Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. His works are in the permanent collections of various private and public institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Collezione Maramotti Museum, Reggio, Italy; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and the Jewish Museum, New York, NY, among others. Bleckner is a board member of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America and was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2009). He currently lives and works in New York, NY.
Alan Cote (b. 1937, Windham, CT) received his MA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, additionally participating in a fellowship through the Museum of Fine Arts from 1961-64. Cote has exhibited throughout the United States, most recently serving as the subject of a solo exhibition, New Work, at Fort Gansevoort Gallery in New York, NY. He has also been showcased at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, Washburn Gallery in New York, NY, Galerie Ricke in Cologne, Germany, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His works are in the permanent collections of numerous private and public institutions, including The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ. In addition, Cote is the recipient of several awards and grants, including the Creative Artists Public Service Programs Grant (1976-77), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting (1984), and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in Painting. He currently lives and works in East Nassau, NY.
Max Gimblett (b. 1935, Auckland, New Zealand) began his academic career by studying drawing at the Ontario College of Art in 1964 and painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1965. Gimblett has been featured in a variety of international exhibitions, most recently serving as the subject of a solo exhibit, The Beginning of Time, at Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco, CA. He has additionally been showcased at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, NY, the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in Auckland, New Zealand, and Pace Gallery in New York, NY. His works are in the permanent collections of numerous private and public institutions, including the the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand; and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, New Zealand, among others. In addition, Gimblett is the recipient of several awards and grants, including a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship (1989), an Augusta Award (2009), an Old Boy of the Year Award (2011) as the appointed benefactor of Auckland Art Gallery, and honorary doctorates from both The University of Waikato (2017) and Auckland University of Technology (2019). He currently lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand, and New York City, NY.
Kevin Teare (b. 1951, Indianapolis, IN) began his academic career by attending Ball State University and Indiana University as an undergraduate. After enrolling at Bard College, he obtained his MFA in 1996. Teare has exhibited throughout the world, recently serving as the subject of a solo exhibition, Nova Spatia, at Arte 92 in Madrid, Spain. He has additionally been showcased at MoMA PS1 in Queens, NY, White Columns in New York, NY, Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY, Parrish Museum in Water Mill, NY, Fort Wayne Museum in Fort Wayne, IN, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis, IN. His works are in the permanent collections of numerous private and public institutions, including Hal Bromm, New York, NY; Goldman Sachs, New York, NY; and McDonald’s Corporation, Chicago, IL. In addition, Teare is the recipient of several awards and grants, including a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship (1978) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting (2006). He currently lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY.
Opening reception: Saturday, September 14th, 6 - 8 PM
PFA - Kensington, MD
4228 Howard Ave LL, Kensington, MD 20895
Open by appointment Saturday
