PHILLIP KING – COLOR SPACE PLACE
2018-07-30Emerging onto the London art scene in the early 1960s, King remains to this day a pioneering figure in the field of sculpture. His carefully composed abstractions bear an affinity to painting, both through the visual interplay of vibrant hues and a resolute frontality. King creates forms with the aim that his sculptures be perceived in their totality from any single vantage point. The array of materials he employs, such as concrete, steel, fiberglass, polyurethane foam, and wood, each prescribe their own means of construction, presenting King with various challenges surrounding movement, strength, and stability. In this regard, the artist moves beyond purely optical concerns and into the tactile. His interests in architecture inform his approach to scale and spatial relationships where he explores volumes both within and between surfaces.
At the heart of the current exhibition are two large-scale sculptures comprised of geometric planes that intersect each other at tilted angles: Swirl, 2018, and Blue Glow, 2016. Color plays an integral role in delineating surfaces—at times foregrounding flatness through their uniformity, at other times revealing depth and shadows along modulated edges. Circular cutouts offer illusions of lightness that are counterbalanced by solid elements. When viewed in context, such surface openings furthermore draw the sculpture’s background into the work as the artist activates the surrounding architecture via painted walls.
Opposite – Swirl, 2018
Exhibition runs through to August 10th, 2018
Luhring Augustine
531 West 24th Street
NY 10011 New York
USA
