JIM GOSS

These small nonobjective paintings are a continuation of a series begun years ago. The motifs have evolved as formal issues have come to the fore. The primacy of the picture plane is reinforced though the destruction and rearrangement of the surface. Critical to their realization is the point where rational meets random.

Their construction is simple; all are wrought in flashe paint on birchwood panel. The technique is essentially that of hand-cut “stencils.” I’ve increasingly allowed the process to drive much of the content thereby shifting the focus to control as medium and metaphor. Other issues are evident in the technique: presence/absence, revelation/concealment, artifice/nature. The lines and forms often mimic, even parody, the brush strokes of more conventional painting.

The scale is determinedly modest. This intimacy enhances the relationship of the work to the artist’s hand and to the viewer’s eye. It also subtly underscores the works’ emphatic presence as art objects.

Working primarily as a painter in both Hoboken, New Jersey and New York’s Catskill mountains, I have been exhibiting for over thirty years. My education has been at Hunter College (BFA in painting) with some graduate work done at Brooklyn College. During those formative years, I have benefited from the counsel of such diverse and well-known figures as Tony Smith, Robert Barry, Doug Ohlson, Ralph Humphrey, and Lee Bontecou.
My credits include group and solo shows at many notable venues including MoMA's PS1, Artists' Space, the Newark Museum, and the Jersey City Museum. I am also the recipient of grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Council. In addition, I have been awarded fellowships at the renowned MacDowell Colony and the Vermont Studio Center among other artists' retreats. My work is currently represented by BCB Fine Arts and appears in collections in North America, Europe, and Africa.