EXHIBITION IMAGES | PRESS RELEASE | ARTIST PAGE
Aril 6 – 30, 2013
HALSEY MCKAY is pleased to present Gin Blossoms, Ted Gahl’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The appearance of gin blossoms on the skin is a condition that reveals the effects of alcohol indulgence over time. To older generations, this conjures images of entertainer W.C. Fields and exaggerated political caricatures while to a younger set, the term is quickly associated with the 1990s alternative band of the same name. Like the lives and art of these figures, themes of melancholy, persistence, duration, nostalgia, and growth pervade Gahl’s work in both direct and playful approaches.
Familiar from Gahl’s paintings, the mingling of figuration and abstraction ispushed into three dimensional space in sculptural works inspired by the painter/viewer relationship. Both the new paintings and sculptures employ a variety of traditional and invented technique including, dry brush, wet-on-wet, drawing, collage and carving into gesso. Paintings that from afar read as monochromatic faxes or faded photocopies, upon closer inspection, reveal heavily layered drawings, names, signs, and insignias. Coatings of charcoal, grease pencil, and graphite are applied as in a grave-rubbing, highlighting the variations in texture and shifting surface depths. The finished pictures assert themselves as hieroglyphic-like slabs – images hidden within having been culled from countless napkin, notebook, and cellphone sketches. Inspired by both art historical references and personal imagery, specific works nod to pieces hanging in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. On a recent trip to Texas, Gahl drew influence from the collection, including Henry Ossawa Tanner’s turn of the century paintings of his travels throughout Europe and the Middle East.
Born in New Haven, CT, Ted Gahl received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2006, and his MFA with Honors from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010. Solo exhibitions include Night Painter, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY; The Peninsula School, Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Green Gallery West, Milwaukee, WI and Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY. Group exhibitions include Space Whole Karaoke, Middlemarch, Brussels, Belgium and Common Objects, David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX. Gahl lives and works in Litchfield, Connecticut.