Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Patrick Lundberg’s Wall ‘Slots’

AA
View Discussion

Lundberg's skinny bootlace paintings are vertical geometric abstractions, compositions that are mathematically and precisely organised. Measurement rules—with articulated, carefully positioned oblong shapes in a deep ‘miners' lift-shaft.' Straight edges dominate (they are not clinically impeccable: the fabric sides swell and subtly undulate) and often a stippled texture is apparent. The colours, in thin paint, are saturated and hot.

Auckland

 

Patrick Lundberg
In the Vastness of Sorrowful Thoughts


28 August - 21 September 2018

In a sequence of alternating rooms at Ivan Anthony, Patrick Lundberg and Richard Bryant mingle their two exhibitions, two practices (one ‘culture’ / the other ‘nature’) dancing around each other, providing foils in thinking and painting methodologies.

Both are subtle in their use of materials (namely very thin paint), and impossible to accurately photograph, both force the viewer (and reviewer) to rely on memory of optical experiences, and both make you think about the works’ interaction with gallery architecture, especially walls on which they are placed.

Lundberg‘s skinny bootlace paintings are vertical geometric abstractions, compositions that are mathematically and precisely organised. Measurement rules—with articulated, carefully positioned oblong shapes in a deep ‘miners’ lift-shaft.’ Straight edges dominate (they are not clinically impeccable: the fabric sides swell and subtly undulate) and often a stippled texture is apparent. The colours, in thin paint, are saturated and hot.

These eleven works are more like slots than slits or slivers. Their consistent narrow breadth is just enough for Lundberg to creatively exploit for compositional impact via repeated calibrations and chromatically penetrating depths. Stand back too far and the whiteness of the walls creates a haze that creeps round the long sides and obliterates. However, if you stand very close you can see undercoats of colour peeking through, as well as connections in the oblongs with Lundberg‘s drawing pin ‘ball’ works with their delicate (extremely fine) crisscrossing lines.

Aspects of these paintings remind me of Milan Mkrusich’s glazed surfaces and geometry, Barnett Newman’s ‘zips,’ the stacked wall modules of Donald Judd, the leaning poles of André Cadere, and Fred Sandback’s string sculptures. It would be a mistake to think of them as ‘minimal’ because these works are not holistic but decidedly compositional—like (for example) most music with its considered placement of notes or chords. For Lundberg the ‘micro’ or diminutive is an exciting world he offers the viewer—one they may visually ‘step into’ and explore. Work that is inventive and courageous. Wonderful.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Laith McGregor, S.O.S., 2025, clay and enamel, dimensions variable.

Performing Magic (with Anxiety)

STARKWHITE

Laith McGregor

 


Long Days, Longer Nights

 


15 March - 15 April 2025

JH
Dale Frank, Installation shot of Dale Frank at Gow Langsford. Photo: Sam Hartnett

Dale Frank in Onehunga

GOW LANGSFORD GALLERY

Onehunga

 

Dale Frank


Dale Frank


8 March - 4 April 2025

JH
Robbie Fraser, HARK, 2025, oil and light refractive pigment on canvas, 1168 x 1216 mm

Robbie Fraser’s Nine Painted Canvases

TWO ROOMS

Robbie Fraser

 

The Centre Always Drifts to the Right

 

7 March - 5 April 2025

JH
Installation view of Mikala Dwyer's Shards and Stones, Sticks and Bones at Starkwhite in Auckland. Little Gold Cloud on the left. Nest is on the right.

Mikala Dwyer @ Starkwhite

STARKWHITE

Mikala Dwyer



Shards and Stones, Sticks and Bones



15 February - 12 March 2025