While Giles Lyon is known for his striking, large-scale abstract paintings, a parallel body of work has developed in his sketchbooks. In these drawings, color and process are reduced to more immediate gestures. Interestingly, these informal responses to the news and the American cultural landscape are more representational than their painted counterparts. Spills morph into machine guns, soldiers, oil platforms and an array of surreal forms and figures. A dark poignancy emerges through the conflation of the abstract and the documentary.

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