Open Ground

Tom Hackney

Sept 8th - Oct 20th, 2017
Project Space 
57W57Arts, New York

In the Project Space, British artist Tom Hackney will present Open Ground, a new collection of monochrome paintings included in his ongoing series, Chess Paintings (2009-present). These monochromes are comprised of gesso or primers, paints that traditionally lie beneath a visible surface, where structural materiality takes precedence over an observable aesthetic. The works in this series are an examination of the challenges posed, particularly to painting, by Marcel Duchamp’s designation of a non-retinal art.

Working from Duchamp’s archived chess notation, Hackney transcribes the constituent moves of a selected game into a single, multilayered painting. A linen or canvas support is first divided into the eight-by-eight square grid of a chessboard. The path of each move is then masked and marked sequentially in a layer of paint. As the game progresses, these layers begin to overlap and overlay, resulting in a painted palimpsest of variable density, composed of layers of orthogonal and diagonal sections delineated by ridges of paint. At the end of the game, the squares of the board that remain uncrossed are left unpainted, leaving visible areas of the material support.

57W57Arts
57 West 57th Street
Suite 1206 New York 
NY 10019

CONTACT
Tel: 212-644-8337      
Email: info@57W57arts.com
 
GALLERY HOURS
Main Gallery, Waiting Room & Project Space: 
Wed - Friday, 12-5, Saturday 12-4, or by appt.

DIRECTIONS:
F N Q R W trains to 57th Street