FOG Design + Art

Thomas Nozkowski’s richly colored and abstract paintings push the limits of visual language. As a response to the dramatic scales of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, he elected instead to work on small, intimately scaled canvases. Beginning with a reflection on a specific place or experience—spanning the deeply symbolic to the notational—Nozkowski translated sensations and memories into abstract geometric and biomorphic compositions. He often returned to certain ideas across several discrete works, devoting weeks, months, or, in some cases, years to exploring the full range of possibilities for a given form, color, application, or gesture. The harmonies and dissonances of color, structure, and gesture compounded in his modest scale become significant manifestations of the artist himself.

Meditative in both process and form, Loie Hollowell’s work blurs the lines between the illusory and the real through the abstraction of the human figure. Created in late 2019, the works presented at FOG explore the artist’s relationship to different stages of her pregnancy—from conception, to birth, to motherhood. She expands the physical presence of her work by interrupting the two-dimensional flatness of the painted surface with high-density, geometric forms adhered to the canvas so that each painting protrudes from the wall as sculpture. She further builds upon this surface in a relief of fine brushstrokes and sponged paint, producing a topography of intricate textures that commingle with the radiant color and bold shapes in each painting.

Additionally, to coincide with the gallery’s seminal exhibition Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern in Palo Alto, Pace’s presentation at FOG will feature two drawings by Pablo Picasso from 1962.

Organized in close collaboration with the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Seeing Picasso is the first monographic exhibition on the artist to be presented in the Bay Area in nearly a decade. Showcasing over thirty-five masterpieces spanning from the late 1890s to the early 1970s, the exhibition is on view at 229 Hamilton Avenue through February 16, 2020.