Duo Exhibition: David Foss – Fields and Structures, Lisa Sylvester – text essential
Posted on: Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
DAVID FOSS | The Blue Beyond | Acrylic on canvas | 72" x 68" | 2011
David Foss
Fields and Structure
LISA SYLVESTER | Grey/Red | Oil on canvas | 60" x 46" | 2007
Lisa Sylvester
text essential
April 6 – 28, 2012
Artist Reception, April 7, 5 – 7 pm
First Friday, April 6, 6 – 8:30
LGTripp Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by David Foss, the fifth with Director, Luella Tripp. Also exhibiting is Lisa Sylvester in her first exhibition at the gallery.
A grid is a network of uniform horizontal and vertical lines within which space is located and systematically defined. In that control and order, David Foss seeks and finds beauty while Lisa Slyvester examines disorder, impulsiveness, and morality.
In his new series, David Foss steps away from the swirling lines and staccato dashes of his earlier work and moves towards the soothing contemplation of the gentle tension between geometric lines and space. He retains a colorful palette and uses it to record and reflect his feelings. While both artists in the show build up layers of paint, Foss scrapes away select layers to unveil the space, creating windows and passages to his world. The grid lines further speak to the urban, man made environment by which today’s existence is defined; yet his fields of color introduce the enjoyment one finds in nature. Simplicity exists within the systematic space Foss defines, thus allowing contemplation of its quiet rhythm.
David Foss was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, earned a MFA in Sculpture from the University of Colorado in 1986, and a BA in Philosophy/Religious Studies from Augustana College, SD, in 1981. Since moving to Philadelphia in 1989, he has actively participated in the visual arts, first as Director of Art in City Hall, then for the last ten years as Executive Director of Da Vince Art Alliance. He regularly exhibits his work, locally and nationally, in solo and group exhibitions. His artwork has been extensively reviewed in local publications and is included in numerous private and public collections. Foss is represented by LGTripp Gallery.
Lisa Sylvester’s work starts out being contained and defined by a philosophical grid – the moral framework that individuals and society endlessly strive to erect. She then introduces paint; the physical, the tactile, and unpredictable. Disorder ensues and Sylvester embraces it. Text, an essential element, is introduced to the process. After rigorous deconstruction and rebuilding, letters carefully crafted and painted by hand, take on a systematic and decisive placement within the grid. The letters themselves emerge as a key visual component of the piece. At their origin, the texts are based on literary sources such as works by Octave Mirbeau, Henry Michaux and Albert Camus.
Born in Baltimore, MD, Lisa Sylvester pursued a career as an artist by earning a MFA in Painting from Boston University in 1996 following a BA degree from Dartmouth College in 1993. Among other awards, she was a finalist in the Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship Program in 1996, and recipient of the Seedling Grant for Emerging Artists, Leeway Foundation, 2000. Sylvester works out of her studio, participating in group and solo exhibitions throughout the Philadelphia area. She currently resides in West Chester, PA.