Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present Scripts, an exhibition of new work by Pat Boas. In Scripts, Boas continues to investigate embodied language and gesture, creating vibrant abstract paintings of varying “frequencies.”
The word “script” can refer to a text or handwriting, to a plan of action or a sequence of commands. Boas’ Script paintings begin with a lexicon of forms related to the artist’s longstanding interest in the activity of reading and develop in a slow process of obscuring and revealing. Thinking of reading as a negotiation between positive and negative space, the works focus not on the formal structure of letters and phrases, but on the movements, marks, edges and interior spaces related to the presentation of language, and the mysterious, immaterial processes by which those marks become thought.
Color remains an important element. Alternating layers of opaque vinyl paints and transparent acrylic glazes, the artist achieves dark, jewel tones accentuated with saturated areas of color. Alongside the Script paintings, Boas is presenting works that go “off-script.” Like seeds from a parent, the compositions of these works are drawn from passages of the Script paintings, yet their handling is more spontaneous and direct. While some are finished quickly, others lie in wait for the right moment, providing occasions to explore the impact of thought and “thoughtlessness” on their making.
Scripts: Pat Boas
Past exhibition
