The current group of large scale paintings further develops the abstracted format and reduced palette of the works exhibited in MooreÂ’s previous show in this gallery in 2005. In the earlier pieces the strong grid, the multiple veils and the piercing structures were elements of a formal language developed by Moore to explore his continuing visual concerns. The grid alluded to security netting that caught his attention on the streets of New York and it supplied the context of gritty urban reality. A piece of rebar that pierced the netting inspired the protruding clusters of drawn lines that created the dramatic and emotional elements within the extreme economy of the rest of the painting. That there was a reference to a real world event is crucial to MooreÂ’s empirical process.

A striking development from 2005 to the present is the integration and subsequent dissolving of the grid format. Now solid blocks of modulated color hold the structure taut and the tight clusters of agitated lines have stretched out into graceful arching ribbons of color. There is an expansion and a subtle change in tempo and it is tempting to imagine a movement away from the rigor of the New York streets and a stronger reference to nature.