Abstract Expressionism—my painting traditional—-is built about paint itself and recording how it moves. Everything I paint already exists outside me, the colored rectangles of the neighbor’s houses, the big bright blossoms in my garden, the elegant energetic line of street graffiti, the insistent printed letters from tattered posters. But the wonder, for me, comes when what is inside returns transformed into paint on a canvas. A Gift.

—Francis Toohey

CHC Gallery is proud to announce “A Mind Filled with Crows,” an exhibition of Abstract Expressionist paintings by Francis Toohey and a selection of emerging artists. For over a decade, Francis Toohey worked as a journalist and artist in the Boston area. As a painter, Toohey uses the idea of traditional landscape painting and records the movement of common external surroundings. This technique translates the simple geometry in nature and engineering into an intense and complex palette.

Francis Toohey was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Boston, MA. He studied Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art. From 1977 to 1992, the artist exhibited in Boston and Provincetown. In the late 1970’s Toohey with his partner Bruce Jope founded the magazine Hit Parade. Toohey has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for two books of poetry and art. All his published work have been collected by the New York Public Library, listed as the Francis Toohey Papers. The artist currently lives and works in Central America.

Chuck Marksberry has curated an exhibition to compliment the works of Francis Toohey— a selection of large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings by emerging artists Carol Hu, Chuki, Marks, Candamil, Joshua Gage and Ralph Turturro. This is the gallery’s fourth showing of these artists’ works and the first time many of them have exhibited in New York.

Discouraged by an over reliance on confrontational materials and theoretical method, Carol Hu, Chuki, and Marks exemplify key elements of Abstract Expressionism with their color usage, composition, spontaneity and motion of application. Taiwanese-born artist, Carol Hu adheres to the strict principle of solely applying paint to canvas and using few media. Possessing an extensive background in art history, she realizes the appreciation for traditional method. Much of her work is lighthearted, but meticulously executed. She received her formal art education from Mason Gross School of the Arts. Chuki expresses through an organically inspired dialogue, an exploration of sensual juxtaposition. His forms, primarily monolithic, are infused with textural, tonal and chromatic subtleties beckoning the viewer to join in his journey. Chuki incorporates a diverse range of materials and their applications to create a literal depth. Chuki received numerous honors during his time at the University of Kentucky. Marks’ intricate works speak to the viewer through their layers of vibrant color. Their smooth, luminescent quality reflects an intent of visual sensation. The canvas story is one of texture and layering intended to convey dimension. Mostly a self-taught artist, Marks was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended the University of Alabama.

Textural and layered depth is common between Candamil, Joshua Gage and Ralph Turturro, though individual results prove vastly dissimilar. Candamil is a self-taught artist born in rural Colombia. Candamil’s early works in their texture, composition, and color palette display a fascination with the surroundings of his youth. Currently, he focuses on incorporating the foreign imagery of recent experiences into what had been such an endogenous process. The on-canvas product of that endeavor is a palpable tension between a rural fidelity to tradition and an urban obsession with modernity. Joshua Gage produces gritty, urban paintings, which allude to contemporary popular influences, from graffiti scrawl to graphic novels. His emphasis on these surroundings is evident in the use of monochromatic earth tones livened with neon colors. Gage received his M.A. from New York University. The primitive scrawls in Ralph Turturro’s work, is about depth and texture. The colors, texts, and inadvertent images that grow out of his process of painting are tools he uses to discover a world as he describes as “eternally, cosmically, and universally real.” He sees this process as similar to that of “an archeologist discovering found objects that send one reeling back and forth through time.” Turturro was born in New York and received his M.F.A. from Pratt Institute. He has exhibited extensively in New York and San Francisco since 1989.