Chris Whitefield’s - Untitled “ Yellow Red Blue Grid” 2025
Jack Fischer Gallery presents Timelines featuring the work of Ian Everard & Chris Whitefield. Opening reception December 6th from 4-6pm.
Artist Statement from Ian Everard
Present, past or future. In my studio, I lose track of time. I may be lost in concentration while painting and observing, or searching around the room for objects that might be subjects. These objects, once found, are often books, photographs, newspapers, or some sort of ephemera. They are from other times, but seem somehow to be relevant in these. Once I have selected an object as a subject, I attempt to copy what I see, usually in watercolor, in exact detail, with all the visible wear and tear, down to each blemish or crease. The paintings are seldom finished but, at certain points in time, I will consider them complete. When complete, I present the subject next to its painted copy - almost as it was when I was painting it. Presented as such, it is both an image and an object. This work of close observation has roots in a long tradition. Artists from the distant past, such as Albrecht Dürer, used watercolor with great precision to record their observation of subjects from the natural world. Similarly, I use watercolor techniques to record the details of subjects from our cultural world. These subjects range from the societal, to psychological and even scientific studies of space and time. This process involves inquiry, pattern recognition and the close observation of both surface and image. While these found objects are the result of mass production, each one is individual and unique, having changed hands and traveled far, bearing its own history of wear and tear. These seemingly simple procedures, in which objects and subjects are presented in juxtaposition, although representing the real, can evoke the imaginary, and result in a fugue of associations, with meaning shifting back and forth between fact and fiction, allusion and illusion, time past, and time present.
Artist Statement from Chris Whitefield
Drawing has always been a part of my life. Working as a carpenter, I spend a lot of my time reflecting on the geometry of construction and the integrity of lines within structure. With my drawing, I bring my building skills into the act of drawing by constructing images line by line, exploring space and tensions between them. The more I draw, the more types of tensions I discover. A single line can be a seismographic record of how we are always in motion; breathing, heartbeat, mood, and overall state of mind create unavoidable fluctuations in hand drawn lines. These colored grid drawings are part of a new mini-series within a larger body of drawings that I started in 2008. Inspired by Agnes Martin, Bridget Riley, and Sol LeWitt, as well as my formative years living between Bolinas and Mexico.