Coming to Asia for the first time, New York artist Garth Weiser’s impasto abstract oils will be shown in Hong Kong by the Simon Lee Gallery this February and March.Built up of various layers of paint that are then destroyed and defaced, Lee’s paintings seem almost battle-scarred. When seen as a whole, their uncertain surfaces serve to fool the eye as to their exact composition, with the effect being a sort of post-apocalyptic Op Art. Shadows rise and fall from the uneven surfaces, causing the canvases to shift and alter their appearance depending on how they are approached.The Simon Lee show will comprise five new paintings, created by Weiser in Brooklyn and in Hillsdale, New York, in spaces shared with his partner, fellow artist FRANCESCA DIMATTIO.The Hillsdale studio space, renovated by the two of them, has made it easier for the artist to create large works. Those that make up this exhibition are slightly larger than man-sized, giving the work an imposing quality that ties him to earlier Abstract Expressionists.Although the Ab Ex connection might seem obvious, Weiser’s work must be seen as a furtherance of the tradition rather than a reductive rehash.The sculptural quality of his work is a departure, as are the painter’s techniques, which make the most of techniques not invented in the era of Pollock or de Kooning. This is particularly evident in the paintings being shown at Simon Lee, on which Weiser got to use for the first time the spray booth that was installed as part of the renovations on his Hillsdale studio.These techniques, and the work that results from them, have been gaining Weiser fans across the United States. His last two solo shows have taken him from the east coast (Casey Kaplan, New York, 2015) to the west (Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2014), and many states in between.“Garth Weiser” runs from February 19 through March 17 at Simon Lee Gallery.
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