David Roth: The Interference Color Paintings

David Roth: The Interference Color Paintings artlover908

David Roth, #8 Green, Orange, Violet Oxide on Black Gesso Interference Paint on board, 2006.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Always eagerly awaited, new work by David Roth, one of the most important conceptual abstract artists of the past 45 years, will debut in David Roth: The Interference Color Paintings at Moderne Gallery, 111 N. Third Street , Philadelphia PA 19106 (215-923-8536; www.modernegallery.com). The exhibition opens on First Friday, May 4 and continues through Saturday, July 14, 2007. This is the first exhibit of contemporary art presented by Moderne Gallery and David Roth’s first solo exhibition since 2001. David Roth: The Interference Color Paintings will include at least 20 new works, extending the artist’s fascination with “the reflection of light on a ‘necessarily’ elusive material surface.” His strokes “know their place in a motif that exists entirely within the painting.” According to Roth, these new works in Interference Color paints – ephemeral, chameleon-like paints that reflect light and change color when seen from different angles -- are an attempt to realize his earlier, well-known “Graphite” works in color. The dynamism of the colors adds to the dramatic actuality of the paintings. “David Roth is an important and innovative Modernist painter of the 20th - 21st centuries. We have been pleased to present his vintage works and now are excited to step into the contemporary art scene with his most recent paintings here at Moderne Gallery,” says owner/director Robert Aibel. “I am eager to see his art receive the recognition it deserves.” The Interference Color Paintings are David Roth’s most advanced work, exploring ideas and solving aesthetic problems in which he has always been interested, but now more than ever “an exploration and adventure into the previously unseen.” In attempting to introduce a visual experience that has not been experienced before, Roth paints in many different ways and from many different angles, sometimes in one color, sometimes in many colors. Colors blend, space appears and curves, movement happens – always in a deliberate dynamic that is optically real. A surface and space are “found” through the very act of painting. The previously “invisible” abstract motif emerges simultaneously – is revealed-- with the artist’s execution of it. “This motif is really what the new work is about,” says Roth. The Interference Color Paintings exhibition at Moderne Gallery will consist of mostly square paintings, from 3’ x 3’ to as large as 8’ x 8’ – on canvas, plexiglas, masonite and string. There will also be a group of smaller, much earlier works that exhibit the genesis of Roth’s aesthetic. The Roth exhibition is a natural outgrowth of Robert Aibel’s interest in presenting significant 20th and 21st century decorative arts, in all forms, and is an important development in the leadership role of Moderne Gallery in the art world.