“Retroflection”, paintings by Frank Owen

September 21 – October 26, 2018

Opening Reception: Friday, September 21, 5 – 7 pm.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Gallery Hours: Tues – Fri 12 – 5 pm, Sat 12 – 4 pm

Review online: Review online: Lake George Mirror

Frank Owen, Searcher (2018), Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 inches.

Frank Owen’s paintings are a vibrant mix of colorful abstract works, both large and small in scale.  He says: “I always say, there are no bad colors. I want the paintings to feel rambunctious. Extravagant. Unruly.”   The works glisten, due to a unique painting process incorporating many layers. Using polyethylene coated paper, he creates a “skin” with a variety of abstract shapes, swirls, plaids, and stripes that he later cuts, scores or carves. He’ll create dozens of these “skins,” more than he’ll need, finally peeling off individual shapes from the plastic, incorporating them into his paintings.  He says: “I begin to peel them off the poly, and I place them, compose them. But the whole process is front-to-back. It’s the opposite of the conventional way of layering an image. The first skins I lay down will appear as the front layer of the painting.”  Many works are inspired by the natural world around him, near his home in Keene, NY.

Frank Owen was born in Kalispell, Montana in 1939, but spent much of his childhood in Woodland City, west of Sacramento, California. He received his B.A. and his M.A. from the University of California at Davis, where he received a Regents Fellowship in 1967-1968. He was twice awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1978-79 and in 1989-90. Owen’s work has been shown in galleries, museums and universities throughout the United States and Europe.  For many years he has shown his work at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York City. He lives and works in the Adirondack Mountains, in Keene, NY.

This exhibition is funded in part by The Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust, Adirondack Studios, The Community Exchange Foundation, and the New York State Council on The Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The Courthouse Gallery hours during exhibitions are Tuesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm, and all other times by appointment. The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets, Lake George, NY.