Madison Cawein: Portals to Invisible Worlds

MADISON CAWEIN PORTALS TO INVISIBLE WORLDS

2

Madison Cawein Portals to Insivible Worlds

March 31 - April 30.2017

LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com

cover: Orchid Odyssey, 2014, oil on linen, 72 x 48 in

Madison Cawein

Portals to Invisible Worlds

The images in Madison Cawein’s elegant canvases of gardenias, peonies and orchids mingle floral blossoms, light and glass to create a sense of quiet transcendence. The recent oil paintings included in Portals to Invisible Worlds feature a realism which exists at the edge between realism and radiant abstraction. The natural, physical world forms the basis for Cawein’s imagery, but just as important is the artist’s interest in optics and the effects of perspective on perception, with concomitant reflections and refractions.

“Unlike photorealism,” Cawein says, “these paintings embrace the touch and gesture of the brush.”

They are not self-conscious of their faithfulness to realism; they are at the same time assured of their painterliness, and in the movements of its artist to interpret light and space in a way that conveys atmosphere and mood, that draws out the unexpected from within the familiar. Painted with an arresting, close-up perspective, many of the paintings are composed as though the viewer were inhabiting a liminal space within the flower or vase, the picture plane a passageway rather than a flat surface.

This body of work, kaleidoscopic and filled with heavenly reflections of elegant color, is grounded in a desire to make tangible what is hard to see, but hidden within all things. “I am moving further and deeper in the direction I have been traveling,” Cawein says. “I have the strong sense that all these images already exist in the ‘Invisible World.’ My part is to create a dynamic solution to enable them to come through into our visible world.” Partially inspired by the physical limitations, accidents and surprises of photography, Cawein works increasingly with focus; a dreamlike interplay of long and short exposure times, of carefully arranged areas of softness and sharpness. “Soft focus can have a feeling of mystery, or even of melting emotion.”

Madison Cawein was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1950. He concentrated in Art History at Harvard with independent instruction in Chinese Calligraphy. From there he moved on to a degree in Painting at the California Institute of the Arts. As the first recipient of the prestigious Bernheim Fellowship who was not primarily a photographer, he spent 1992 in residence at the Bernheim Arboretum.

He has been the recipient of several other grants over the years, including a Kentucky Arts Council Professional Assistance Award in 1994, and NEA/Kentucky Arts Council Artists-in-Education Grants in 1975-76 and 1980-82. His work is represented in many public and private collections.

2

cover: Orchid

3

Diadem, 2017, oil on linen, 60 x 96 in

Strange Attractor, 2017, oil on linen, 60 x 96 in

4

Gardenia Crown, 2016, oil on panel, 24 x 36 in 5

The First Peony, 2017, oil on linen, 17 x 26 in 6

Floating Peony, 2017, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in 7

Heart of the Poem, 2017, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in 8

Listening for the Ocean, 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in

9

Peony from the Sea, 2017, oil on linen, 40 x 60 in 10

Phase Space, 2017, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in

11

12

Orchid Ring, 2014, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in 13

Gardenia Awakening, 2015, oil on linen, 40 x 60 in 14

Gardenia Bezel, 2013, oil on linen, 24 x 36 in

15

Gardenia Lights, 2017, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in 16

Gardenia Pacifica, 2016, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in

17

Gardenia Cities, 2017, oil on panel, 12 x 18 in

18

New World, 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in 19

Moving Towards the Light, 2015, oil on linen, 17 x 26 in

20

The Intensified Sky, 2016, oil on linen, 24 x 36 in

21

Another World, 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in

22

Madison Cawein EDUCATION 1973 California Institute of the Arts, B.F.A. 1971 Harvard University

1971

1970

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017 Portals to Invisible Worlds, LewAllen

Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2011 Sky Still Lifes, B. Deemer Gallery,

Louisville, KY 2009 Around the World, B. Deemer Gallery,

Louisville, KY 2007 New Works, B. Deemer Gallery,

Louisville, KY 2002 B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY 1999 B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY 1997 B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY 1995 B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY 1993 B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY 1988 Bellarmine College, Louisville, KY 1986 Swearingen Gallery, Louisville, KY 1985 Portland Museum, Louisville, KY 1980 Portland Museum, Louisville, KY O 1983 Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY

Harvard-Radcliff Art Forum, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA Harvard-Radcliff Art Forum, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA

SELECTED AWARDS AND GRANTS 1994 Kentucky Arts Council Professional

Assistance Award

I. W. Bernheim Foundation Fellowship 1984 1st Place in NEA and Kentucky Arts Council 1976 2ndPlace in NEA and Kentucky Arts Council

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 B. Deemer Gallery, Louisville, KY; also

2011, 2009, 2005, 2004,2003, 2002,

2001, 1999, 1997, 1995,1994 and 1993 2005 J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky 1989 Kentucky to Ecuador Invitational, Quito &

Cuenca, Ecuador

In Sight of Louisville Invitational,

Washington, D.C.

photo courtesy of Madison Cawein 23

25

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com Š 2017 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Artwork Š Madison Cawein