McKenzie Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Don Voisine, his second solo show with the gallery. Voisine paints in oil on wood in a reductive, hard-edged manner within a consistent format: solid bands of rich, bright color of varying width are set either top and bottom or left and right and enclose overlapping fields of black against a white or near-white field. The black fields are rectilinear in form and are articulated one from another by the use of matte versus gloss finish, as well as by directional brushwork. The black planes are sometimes set in a grid, but more often are set at angles to one another, for example, as overlapping X shapes, or a square set against a parallelogram. In Voisine’s new work, the angles have become more complicated, and the artist intentionally disrupts the logic of the lines and planes as the eye travels from one side of the painting to the other. Subtle internal rhythms emerge: at times the black fields have a free-floating quality and give an impression of movement within deep space; in other works the matte versus glossy fields engage in a subtle pulsation, while in others the space is shallow and planar, punctuated by small diamond shapes or triangular cuts that pierce the intensity of the black void. Offsetting the weight of the black planes are narrow strips of additional color that counterbalance both the dark areas and the borders, and provide movement and punctuation within the composition. In these new paintings the outer color bands are more saturated, with deeper tonalities than previously, and the paintings are executed with a taut precision and clarity throughout. Regardless of scale, Voisine’s paintings feel monumental and self-contained, straightforward but never austere, subtly nuanced and sophisticated. The artist achieves a remarkable diversity within a restricted format which nevertheless has seemingly endless possibilities for variation and exploration.

Voisine has been exhibiting his work nationally and internationally for over three decades. Recent showings include group exhibitions at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Invitational in New York, the Portland Museum of Art Biennial in Maine, and numerous solo and group gallery exhibitions from San Francisco to Berlin. He is president of the American Abstract Artists, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.