The main components of my recent subject matter in the Interspace Series are selected fragments from my photographs of space and various objects, cut and/or folded, and hand painted and printed papers. My Interspace Series explores the translation of three dimensional paper shapes into two dimensional color designs, in a further exploration of the relativity of color, figure/ground and negative spaces. With these fragments I compose abstract compositions. These studies for my large scale oil paintings are focused on space, shapes, shadow and light.
For many years I have been absorbed in the process of creating the illusion of transparency in my paintings. With oil paints I mix separate notes of color to approximate light as it is reflected or refracted on various planes observed in nature and man-made objects. This process has continued with the Artifact and Interlusion Color Series. My central concern in The Artifact Color Series, begun in 2018, is the concept of phenomenal transparency; I employ opaque mixtures to achieve the illusion of transparency in the medium of oil paint. These are inspired by Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square series and are collages created with painted woodblock papers. They are the oil paint mixtures from current paintings, influenced by the seasons and local weather.
The Interlusion Series, begun in 2019, combines the Artifact Color Series collages with a return to trompe l’oeil paint handling in the interest of capturing subtle gradations of veils of color as they arc and flow over the compositions of the Artifact Color Series with some transparency. Interlusion blends two or more sensibilities of spatial and atmospheric relationships in two dimensions to capture the transparency effects and the multiple layers of colors and their interactions. The sense of atmosphere between the layers imparts a feeling of landscape to these paintings.
-Ginnie Gardiner, 2022
Reviews
‘Where reductive formalism (“Greenberg”) would see an unresolved contradiction I see a synergistic interplay that gives both kinds of transparency more meaning and value than either would have in isolation. It’s an expansive interplay, which gives these works a large scale and landscape atmosphere.’
-Carter Ratcliff, 2019
‘Gardiner’s earliest uncollages fuse conceptually complex topics, but visually champion minimalist aesthetic, despite the amalgam of genera present in single work – abstraction, surrealism, pop art, photomontage, dechirage, trompe l’oiel. What holds together her elegant partnerships between form and content is an exquisite sense of light and color.’
-Todd Bartel – excerpt from ‘Before It’s an Uncollage’ – Kolaj Magazine, 2019
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