Janet Fish: Recent Paintings
February 11-March 14, 2009
DC Moore Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Janet Fish: Recent Paintings. The exhibition features vibrant still lifes that explore the interaction of light with a variety of objects and surfaces. In these paintings, Fish continues to develop the rich genre of the tabletop still life for which she is well known, introducing new motifs and objects to the precisely arranged, energetically executed, dazzlingly colored compositions that are her hallmark. A full-color catalogue with an essay by Sarah King is available.
King elaborates, “Fish’s virtuoso compositions of mundane imagery and natural forms continue to manifest an extraordinary versatility that perceptually explores the threshold between realism and abstraction.” In this way, Fish invigorates the traditional still life form, both in the spirited way that she paints and the witty combinations of objects she depicts. Her selection of brilliantly colored vessels brimming with flowers culled from her garden or citrus fruits delights the eye, while the lyrical ambiguities resulting from their complex arrangements challenge the mind. In works like Orange Bowl on Blue Mirror, Orange Poppies/Fish Bowl, and Plastic Boxes, Fish maintains the rigor of individual, sun-drenched objects, such as a faceted glass pitcher, peeled orange, and bunch of irises. At the same time, she playfully explores her interest in their translucence, reflection, and shadows.
In several paintings Fish incorporates more exotic objects. In addition to intricate, delicate Chinese kites, souvenirs from a recent trip, Phoenix Kite and Dragon Kite include takeout bags and Chinese characters. In Blue Kimono/Orange Poppies, she substitutes an elaborate kimono for the floral or geometrically patterned table coverings on which she typically arrays her objects. Similarly, in Uzbekistan Suzani, an embroidered textile from Central Asia provides a dramatic backdrop that rivals the colorful dynamism of the fruit bowl, floral vase, and opened magazine in the foreground.
Fish traces her fascination with light and color to her childhood years spent amid the radiant brightness and tropical colors of Bermuda. Since the late 1970s, she has split her time between New York City and rural Vermont. Considered one of the most important still-life painters working today, Janet Fish is represented in over one hundred museum and corporate collections across the country, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Cleveland Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; Detroit Institute of Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Whitney Museum of American Art; and Yale University Art Gallery.
The exhibition will travel to the Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida from March 27-May 23, 2009.
