FOCUS: Barnaby Furnas

April 15, 2007 - June 10, 2007
Barnaby Furnas,  The Other Way (Flood), 2007

Barnaby Furnas
The Other Way (Flood), 2007
Urethane, dispersed pigment, and dye on linen
Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery and Anthony Meier Fine Art

April 15, 2007 - June 10, 2007

Barnaby Furnas (American, born 1973) explores historical and biblical themes in his large-scale canvases, which are often described as colorful and expressionistic. The parting of the Red Sea, the Crucifixion, the hanging of the American abolitionist John Brown, and the American Civil War, for example, are depicted by Furnas in dramatic scenes that combine figuration with abstraction. To create his works, the artist places his canvases on the floor and allows pigment to pool and run, forming abstract shapes. Approaching his canvases with an all-over composition method, Furnas combines these accidental passages with figures to depict narrative scenes that are infused with bursts of color, most often bright red. The tension created by combining figuration with explosive abstract forms is key in Furnas’s works.

Barnaby Furnas
The Other Way (Flood), 2007
Urethane, dispersed pigment, and dye on linen
Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery and Anthony Meier Fine Art