Garth Weiser compresses and conflates figural, landscape, and geometric elements to create paintings which rest in an enigmatic point between abstraction and representation. He mediates between the structure of an image and it’s meaning. Pushing the discordant relationship between formalist rigidity and expressionistic liberty, he makes the fundamental components of image making the subject of his paintings.

Each work begins with an impasto grid that acts as a scaffold upon which a figurative form is built. Within this sub-structure, large rectangular shapes delineate colossal heads and torsos. Pattern is a volume and a flattened visual field. Color is used both as hue and substance. Illusionism is reduced to graphic models in some areas while it is conventionally rendered in others.

As the image is developed, residue from earlier decisions is retained creating a disruption in the organizational qualities of the painting’s schematic origin. This wounded, scarred surface suggests something buried underneath. In this way, Weiser creates a space that accommodates disparate readings. One involves the imaginative wanderings of figures bunkered down in layers of geometry while another is tied to paint as a material embossed upon the canvas.

In Always Down and In a coat of arms depicting the head of a beast emerges on the torso of the central form. Rendered through directional brush marks that catch the light at certain angles, the coat of arms is hidden and revealed depending on the direction in which the painting is viewed. This baroque interlude creates a dynamic tension as the painting is pulled into a realm of symbols and iconography while its geometric space and tactile surface illustrate Weiser’s formal appreciation of the medium.