I am so fortunate to work with the people that I do. Kenise Barnes is a tireless supporter of her artists and beautiful person.
Blues in the studio
Beyond These Days
Valley House Gallery is a beautiful space.
Beyond These Days
Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Boot and Scoot
Keeping the studio rolling.
Orbits
Keeping this painting in mind as a springboard to launch new work.
Orbits, 2022, oil on linen, 60 x 60 inches
Bounce
It’s always slow and awkward making work after an opening. This time the smaller pieces are helping me get my hands moving. These are happening on my north wall. The south wall is filled with large canvases of open atmospheric spaces.
Scaffold 2, 2021, acrylic and oil on paper on panel, 12 x 12 inches
The Prisoner
The Prisoner, 2022, acrylic and paper on canvas, 46 x 46 inches
Show, Don't Tell
Here is an excerpt from Wild Blue Yonder by Stephen Maine, the essay Stephen wrote for the catalogue.
— While Collins has used words and numerals in his work for many years, language is especially prominent in Tell Tails. Incomplete, faded, printed in reverse, but legible nevertheless is a headline from not so many years ago: “Airstrikes in Eastern Afghanistan.” This infiltration of reportage on America’s longest war into the refined atmosphere of geometric abstraction is startling and evocative, even though the neutral factuality of the text is accompanied not by heart-rending imagery such as we are currently receiving from photographers and videographers in Ukraine, but by a small clipping of grainy, gray newsprint.
Some biographical information may be useful here. Collins grew up in the American heartland. His father founded Collins Radio, and later innovated significant advancements in avionics. This legacy of aviation technology contributes enormously to the artist’s themes, as seen in his various allusions to the mechanics and experience of flight. It appears that he, more pointedly than ever, is working through his relationship to the morally ambiguous role of military aviation in this country—both in the defense of American airspace, and in questionable (and arguably criminal) US aggression abroad.
Which is not to say that Tell Tails takes a position on US foreign policy, or the responsibility of the individual living (and making art) in a bellicose culture. But the introspective Collins recognizes that there are links, however recondite or oblique, between the family business that shaped his early life and the decisions he makes, decades later, in his studio. His self-appointed task as a painter is not to illustrate or explain those connections, but to try to make sense of them for himself, in visual terms, on just a few square feet of canvas. Such is the density of meaning that’s possible in painting—and Collins’s deft ability—that these works can confront the anxiety of influence and still soar.
—Stephen Maine
Tell Tails, 2022, acrylic and paper on linen, 50 x 46
Catalogue Release
I am very excited to be releasing my first catalogue. This little book is 34 pages of full color with an essay by the brilliant artist and writer Stephen Maine. It is published in conjunction with Kenise Barnes Fine Art and Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden. Copies can be ordered through the galleries or in my shop.
Last Week to see These Days at Kenise Barnes Fine Art
If you are in the area, this is the last week of my show, These Days, at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent CT.
Passages, 2022, oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches
Pictures of Friends at an Exhibition
These Days
These Days refers to the actual time spent in the studio making the paintings and the compression of that time sensed during their viewing. Numerous hours of work and observation invested in the making reveal themselves in an instant to the viewer. Stops and starts, progressions and about faces, the actual days are stacked and layered upon themselves to comprise a singular image.
These paintings were made over the course of the last three years. Some began with promise, then sat to the side as others captured my attention. Returning to these paintings much later, I decided to revisit familiar motifs and methods that I had not used in years, including wallpaper patterns, drawn quatrefoils, dots on arcs, and opposing circles and spheres. Reintroducing these familiar aspects of my work brought time together, the past to the present, these days.
These Days Opens at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent CT
It was wonderful visiting with so many great friends, old and new, at the opening of my show at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT. So many nice people came out to support Kenise’s beautiful gallery. It is a warm and wonderfully lit space. I especially love the clerestory windows.
It’s is always surprising the first time seeing the work outside of the studio. As long as the paintings remain in the studio, there is the potential for more to be done - or undone. I am very pleased with how they hang in the gallery. All the chaos of the studio has come to rest and everything looks as it should. I am so grateful to Kenise and everyone who makes the trip to see the show. These Days will be up until October 30th.
Triplet
From a new group of works using paper on panel. An existing monotype and a laser print of wallpaper pattern are layered over a painted panel. The architectural patter is showing through a window cut out of the monotype. This is one of a group made in an attempt to reduce the number of elements in a given work.
Rigging 2, acrylic on linen on panel, 32 x 44, 2021 at Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson NY
Space Deconstructed, Two person show with James Isherwood.
Hangar CR in the window of Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson NY
photo by Juliet Lofaro
Space Deconstructed
Two person show with James Isherwood at Susan Eley Fine Art in Hudson NY
Dallas Art Fair Online
I am very happy to be a part of Valley House Gallery’s selection for the 2020 Dallas Art Fair Online. Click here to view their virtual booth.
Proving Ground, oil and acrylic on linen, 60 x 60, 2018