A Minor Constellation

Chris Sharp Gallery is pleased to present a survey of small painting entitled A Minor Constellation. 

Featuring the work of over 30 local, national and international contemporary painters, the exhibition focuses on economy of scale as an artistic conceit. It goes virtually without saying that just because a painting is small does not necessarily mean it was easier to make or is any less significant than a large painting. Like the format of the short poem or haiku, it can be incredibly challenging to create with such limited means. The artists in the exhibition are driven to work with small formats for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they have been laboring for decades, trimming away the inessential in order to get to what is absolutely necessary. In others, size is a practical or ethical issue. And in still others, a personal or even spiritual challenge which has less to do with self expression than self abnegation. Some see the domestic as a more compelling space of formal experimentation. Finally, there are those who believe that they can achieve a greater effect, whether it be in terms of humor, affect, or criticality, quite simply, with less. Whatever the case may be, if subject matter and modes of painting in this exhibition vary (and they do, greatly), one thing all of these artists have in common is a tendency toward reduction of format, but most definitely not impact. And although modesty of size is the filament that binds these painters together, they otherwise remain wholly themselves, radiating outward like so many irreducible parts of a provisional constellation of contemporary painting.