From a large piece in multiple shades of white, replete with a dense array of mystical, religious and extraterrestrial references, to works that suggest strange new life forms emerging from even stranger environments, this exhibition emphasized Pearson’s range as an abstractionist, in visually riveting paintings that are also chock-full of linguistic, cultural and personal references. Gregory Volk, Art in America, 2006

For his fifth exhibition at the Feldman Gallery, Bruce Pearson will exhibit new paintings and related drawings that are based on text which has been transformed to the point of near indecipherability. Constructed from large Styrofoam slabs and carved with a “hot” wire, the creviced wall reliefs depict camouflage-like patterns and intricate web designs. The title of the work is both revealed and concealed within the work. Pearson explores that pivotal point where form is pushed to abstraction but can still be recognized. Information can be sensed and felt by deciphering the codes.

The exhibition features monochromatic paintings that are studies of color and surface and their relationship to light. A glossy, black painting, Funny that you should think that walking backwards is a sign of intelligence, from a poem by Monica de la Torre, creates a sense of infinite space. Tonight let’s listen, from a poem by Raphael Rubenstein, exploits variations of the color gray. The texts in several white paintings from the series Spirituality Today, in which no shade of white is repeated, intersect with alchemical and Kabbalah images and incorporate allusions to the Op Art of Bridget Riley.

Pearson’s Encyclopedia series comments on the absurd attempt to catalogue all knowledge and is paired with the eclectic breadth of the references informing his work. Encyclopedia #4 combines botanical imagery from nineteenth-century sources with phrases culled from the front page of The New York Times (9/21/08) – that lurch from crisis to crisis what could happen without a decisive move agreed he had no choice.

From the artist’s ongoing series about contemporary definitions of masculinity, The latest signal that men are being primed to become the new women integrates fragmented text with a grid derived from outlines of figures taken from magazine images.

In Hikuli, the title is spiraled upon itself, and its brilliant colors are based on the palette of North Mexican tribal art, synthesizing form and content. A reference to the 60’s, An answer that was really at the end of the line combines text by Harry Smith, an experimental filmmaker and musicologist, with an aerial photograph. The painting replicates a system of mapping and, as happens in many of Pearson’s works, is affected by the light.

Recent exhibitions by Bruce Pearson include a solo show at Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard in Paris and the following group exhibitions: Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Pierogi et al; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Styrofoam; Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, It’s Gouache & Gouache Only, curated by Geoffrey Young; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Sensory Overload: Forces of Light, Sound, and Motion; and Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, Optikats.