Mimi Bates: Debris of Abstraction II

Mimi Bates, Solar Flare II, oil / gessoed sheet metal, 42” x 52”. Courtesy of the artist and Kelley Roy Gallery.

Kelley Roy Gallery

February 1 - March 11, 2010

As inspiration for her show, “Debris of Abstraction II,” at the Kelley Roy Gallery, Mimi Bates captured a fallen red leaf in turmoil from the wind to better absorb a micro view inside the leaf’s colors. She gestured mimetic urban hieroglyphs on the canvas, only to erase the traces of such scribble and alter the dynamics of the action itself. The rising sun, a midnight walk, fallen leaves and strewn pine needles intimately woven by the wind have been etched in black, grey, rust, and taupe granite and absorbed by oil, wax, and acrylic paint. In the texture of her abstract paintings, cause and effect dissolve into more abstract forms. She vets the contingency inherent in the object or debris and in doing so suggests its enduring necessity.

Bates’ work maintains a steady dialogue with artists like Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenburg, and Cy Twombly.  Like Twombly, Bates is a creature of exile: he overlooks the Mediterranean from the Roman coast, while she seems in permanent exile on her hilltop overlooking the Pacific. Both of them derive strange pleasure out of found objects, along with the draw of dynamic splashes of color explosions and explorations.

Kelley Roy Gallery. 50 NE 29th St. Miami, FL, 33127

www.kelleyroygallery.com