Doyle Gertjejansen Mapping Pangaea

Location:
518 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130

Description:
Is it possible to balance gravitas and levity, conceptual sophistication and unabashed sensual delight Yes, is the answer Doyle Gertjejansens paintings and sculpture unequivocally demonstrate. With their juxtapositions of smooth and nubby textures, contrived and spontaneous gestures, deep Renaissance perspective and flat modernist space, the works in Mapping Pangaea superimpose jaunty, Stuart Davislike rhythms against the impulsivity of Abstract Expressionism and the witty, selfreferential pastiche of the postmodernist era. For more than three decades, Gertjejansen, chair of the fine arts department at the University of New Orleans and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in painting, has been a fixture in prestigious private, corporate, and institutional collections around the United States and the world. His works are richly nuanced meditations on art history, the relationship between authentic and metaphoric experience, and the human compulsion to superimpose order upon the chaotic amorality of nature. The paintings are born of a fascinating dualistic process that begins with the artist making arbitrary marks on his canvasessometimes with his eyes closed to heighten the sense of Dadaist spontaneitythen layering structural motifs on top, pivoting between randomness and rigor until the dischord between the two coalesces into harmony. The completed artworks open up their thematic petals like lotus flowers, revealing fresh interpretive possibilities upon each viewing. Their robust conceptualism notwithstanding, these are lushly colorful works that offer the eye no lack of voluptuary pleasures. An immaculately sanded 16foot fiberglass sculpture entitled Frames of Reference will cap the show, offering a smooth, minimalist counterpoint to the gestural and chromatic maximalism of the paintings. The sculpture features an interactive sound component, which expresses the artists enduring fascination with the dark mysteries of nature and the methods by which we attempt to fathom them.