GO NORTH is very pleased to present an exhibition of new abstract paintings by Erik Hanson entitled "AfterMath." This is Hanson’s first solo show with the gallery, and runs from May 10 to June 1, 2008. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, May 10, from 6 to 9 pm.
If Erik Hanson’s oil on canvas paintings were music, they would fill an ambitious concert hall’s program with everything from minimal tone poems to crashing Mahlerian symphonies, delirious Glassian operas, and mysterious Partian choral pieces. In truth, it is not a far stretch to imagine a certain type of powerful musical accompaniment to Hanson’s work, despite the fact that Hanson uses a vocabulary of images all his own that pretends to be nothing more or less than non-representational. Like the aforementioned composers, Hanson creates epic drama and mystery in his "AfterMath" series with big gestures and virtuosic manipulation of his medium. Paint seemingly transmutes into the four elements in his hands: whites and purples drip and clot around ice floes; gaseous frozen blues thaw and ignite over vast wastelands; and projectiles of peaty dark brown orbit and blur through space dust. Matter is torn apart and reassembled on every canvas.
Cycles of destruction and creation are central to Hanson’s work. The series title makes reference to the aftermath of personal tragedy, but also broadly addresses the concept of what comes after a cataclysm within an historical perspective and even from a cosmological standpoint. Things fall apart; that is the way of all lives and worlds. Hanson shows us that it is in the aftermath that new things emerge, the old order finally ceases to exist, and the transformative effects of great upheaval amount to knowledge gained.
Hanson graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and participated in many gallery exhibitions including "Emerging" at The Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago. In 1985 Hanson was selected best emerging artist by nationally published art critic, art historian James Yood in conjunction with the "Emerging" exhibition. In the 1980s Hanson became an integral member of New York City’s1985 East Village art scene, exhibiting at various galleries. In 1998 Hanson graduated from the Pratt Institute with a Master of Science degree and moved to his current residence in Peekskill, New York. Hanson has exhibited both nationally in the Westchester, NY area and internationally in the 2003 Florence Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea. His work is in various private collections, in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the Museum of Modern Art.
An eight page catalogue for the exhibition "AfterMath" will be available. $5.00 plus $2.00 shipping fee, if applicable.
gonorthgallery@hotmail.com www.gonorthgallery.com
Contact: Gregory Slick 845.242.1951
Gallery hours: 12 - 6 pm Saturday and Sunday, and by appointment.
Visit GO NORTH website for directions; in the contact section.
From Grand Central Station New York City take the Metro North Hudson line to Beacon. A free trolley shuttle at the train station to Main Street (gallery district) will be available opening day and night.
Beacon, New York, is located 50 miles north of New York City, along the Historic Hudson River Valley. Routes 9G and Interstate 87.
