Contact:

Patrick Kemal Pryor

patrick@kolmanpryorgallery.com

612-280-7812

"Tablets"
New Work by Patrick Kemal Pryor
Through February 20, 2015

Bloomington Theater and Arts Center

Artist Talk: Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 7:00 p.m.

(BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA) Patrick Kemal Pryor, co-owner of Kolman & Pryor Gallery, is currently showing a new series of work, entitled, "Tablets," at the Bloomington Theater and Arts Center as part of the Center's exhibition, Interactions. Pryor will be talking about "Tablets" at the Bloomington Theater and Arts Center on Tuesday, February 3 at 7:00 p.m. The exhibition and Pryor's paintings will be on view through February 20, 2015. The Bloomington Theater and Arts Center is located at 1800 West Old Shakopee Road in Bloomington, Minnesota.

For Minneapolis artist Patrick Pryor, the literal act of painting is an expressive strategy to explore cyclical phenomena and notions of the past, ideas that are manifested in his recent series of abstract paintings titled Tablets. Of substantial scale, the acrylic on canvas works variously allude to ancient archeological sites, whose partially visible remains suggest a forgotten past, or to remnants of well-worn maps whose once coveted content - perhaps directions to a lost city - is now indecipherable. Still other paintings recall aerial views of a remembered landscape or even the ancient Nasca Lines. Moreover, his frequent inclusion of the Roman labyrinth motif an ancient geometric pattern that embellished mosaic floors centuries ago heightens this enigmatic link to the past. For Pryor, there is wisdom in the cycles of society and the natural world that provides critical insight into the present.

Trained as an engineer, Pryor applies his problem solving instincts to his artistic practice and the Tablets series revealing him to be equal parts builder, excavator and storyteller. His explorative process is one of discovery, an intuitive journey where he builds layer upon layer of paint, often mixed with sand, to create a tactile but nuanced surface. Initial layers of vivid color are painted over with lighter more neutral hues and markings. Subsequently, Pryor mists the paintings surface with water to facilitate the scraping or sanding of particular areas to create textures, and reveal color and markings beneath. Later applications of a gauze-like layer of white paint create a sense of depth and either obscure or liberate areas of information beneath.

I truly embrace the process, Pryor explains. It is active and experimental; I transform the surface from one thing into another. It is an act of constructing something and then tearing it down. I want this work to evoke the idea of uncovering what has been buried or lost. Scraping away what is covered is a way of bringing back what is below.

As the series title suggests, the Tablets paintings are informed by an intangible narrative quality that is amplified by a network of black calligraphic markings that lace together the formal elements of the work. Spare but animated these delicate markings flow across the painted surface in an arabesque dance, always eluding specific identification. For Pryor, the marks symbolize a form of automatic writing as practiced by such French Surrealists as writer André Breton and painter André Masson. These calligraphic markings are akin to writing, he comments. They also occupy, embellish and defile the space around them.

At its core, Pryors Tablets series reflect a set of self-determined dichotomous terms. Construct and Excavate. Create and Erase. Embellish and Defile. Intention and Chance. All are contradictory terms that he uses freely when describing the nature of his practice. The Tablets series can also be contemplated as a metaphor for the cyclical nature of things. Ultimately, in their visual complexity and abstraction, the Tablets paintings are associative constructions that beckon the viewer to bring his or her personal narrative to the work and discover a linkage to the past.