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Martina Johnston Gallery

September 24 - November 21, 2011

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1201 Sixth Street, 2nd Floor
Berkeley, CA 94710 Berkeley, CA 94710
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Perception and Economy of Form Alex Nowik, "Work Table," Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 16 inches, 2009.
The Martina }{ Johnston Gallery is pleased to present Perception and Economy of Form, an exhibition featuring paintings, drawings, and embroidery by the Bay Area artist Alex Nowik. Please come join us at the opening reception on Saturday, September 24th, from 4 to 8 p.m. For twenty years Alex has kept the same studio on Waller Street in San Francisco and often found objects in his working space to be the chosen subjects for his work. Objects such as a yellow radio, working tables, newspapers, books, art supplies, and other pieces of everyday reality are repeated motifs in Nowik’s still-life paintings and drawings. Persistent choice here does not equal lack of interest in the subject matter or purely plastic significance of the still-life. Quite the contrary. Table. Plugged in yellow radio. Isolated objects in undefined space. In real space these are the artist’s proximate things waiting to be manipulated and subordinated to their user. In Nowik’s paintings, they are carefully chosen objects poised between the image of the outside and the experience of the inside. On one side of the easel - objects - arranged to be contemplated to produce a picture of the world; on the other side - a painter - open to the world entering his being through perception and ready to record this encounter. There is no dramatic significance or hidden ideology, but thoughtful elimination and the exercise of perception. A modest task, yet a profound labor of vision. Nowik submits humbly to the objects and in return records subtle self-revelations. The sensual energy of his work also rests in the physical fact of the medium. While under-painting gains the importance of the finished state, the graphite grid acquires equality within the composition. Paint is applied in multiple thin layers of varying hues, building a picture from light and atmosphere. Sometimes the thin paint is applied all over, disregarding the edges of objects and emphasizing the directional quality of brushstrokes. However, the lost edges of forms are then found and reaffirmed by graphite outlines, as if to settle the significance of objects. For in order to grasp the world beyond himself, Alex Nowik masters the material to become a perfect embodiment of the invisible. Please join us to celebrate this extraordinary work. Open Sundays 1-4 pm and by appointment
Perception and Economy of Form Alex Nowik, "Yellow Radio," Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, 2009.