NEW YORK, NY, September 22 – Bill Hodges Gallery is pleased to present On The Wall, a survey exhibition of striking works that exemplify the rich variety of artwork housed in the gallery’s more than forty-year collection. From Romare Bearden’s colorful and intimate portrait of domesticity, The Family, to Kara Walker’s monochromatic silhouetted scene, Chain of Events, On The Wall encapsulates the dynamism of the modern and contemporary art genre, brimming with historical and political significance. With visually arresting works that feature varying levels of abstraction, realism, scale and dimension, On The Wall provides a compelling vignette of the important works produced by Black and Latinx artists.
Upon entering the gallery, Norman Lewis’ exuberant, large-scale behemoth, Exodus, immediately captures the viewer’s gaze. The largest painting included in the exhibition, Exodus is a vibrantly dynamic, eye-catching example of the artist's ability to balance abstraction, storytelling, rhythm, and repetition in his large-scale works. Like a congregation united in motion, the abstracted figures in Exodus seem to buzz in harmony; with electric yellows activated against a hazy, charcoal grey background.
Adjacent to Exodus is Merton Simpson’s nuanced and profound painting, Confrontation. Confrontation is an exceptional example of the artist’s meditation on race relations in the late 1960s – emerging from the artist’s Confrontation series. Simpson’s Confrontation series can be characterized by paintings that depict black and white faces inter-meshed and gridlocked in a charged encounter. In the above work, the profile of two abstracted faces clash, both with bared teeth sharpened to a point. Though the facial features of the figures in this painting are softened by muted sepia tones, highlights accenting their tense brow lines and proud chins energize the work with streaks of crimson, viridian, and cobalt.
With over twenty works of masterful artistic vision, On The Wall crystallizes the diversity in perspective and practice displayed by artists in the gallery’s collection. In addition to the artists previously mentioned, On The Wall also features works by Charles Alston (1907 – 1977), Charles Sebree (1944 – 1985), Melvin Edwards (1937 - ), Will Barnet (1911 – 2012), Richard Hunt (1935 - ), Milton Avery (1885 – 1965), Bernard Buffet (1928 – 1999), Eldzier Cortor (1916 – 2015), Lyle Ashton Harris (1965- ), Miguel Covarrubias (1904 – 1957), Angel Botello (1913 – 1986), Willie Cole (1955 - ), and Richard Dempsey (1909-1987).