Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present an exhibition with California-based artist Aaron Glasson titled A Circle with Many Centers, opening Saturday, May 6th, 2023. Born in New Zealand and now based in the Mojave Desert, Glasson has devoted much of his career as an artist to exploring ideas around ecology, connectivity, and community engagement. Glasson reflects these subjects not only through the imagery he employs, but also in the materials he uses.
The exhibited paintings were made over a winter in the desert, a season of particularly peculiar and wild weather—the strongest winds Glasson has ever experienced, still nights, sublime cloud formations and intensely colorful skies, dust storms, rains and snow. The title of the show is inspired by a quote from 16th century mathematician Blaise Pascal, who claimed that “nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” Living alone in the expanse of land that provoked this body of work, Glasson considered the lack of evidence in distinguishing a true center of the universe, alluding to the vast and interconnected system within which we operate. Every living organism, including humans, animals and plants, perceives itself as the focal point of life through an inherently unique consciousness and experience of reality. Although we each have our own sense of “center,” we are a part of a larger system that includes other species whom we rely on for our own survival and well-being. Speaking to this concept, Glasson explains how he “[sees] these paintings as attempts to capture a moment in time from [his] middle point. Spending a lot of time in nature [in the Mojave Desert], one sees the circles everywhere, in the sun and moon, in rocks, animal holes, leaves, cacti, flowers and petroglyphs carved into rocks near [his] cabin.” The circle plays a role in every painting so as to mimic the form’s ubiquitous rank in the natural world.
Exemplified in A Circle with Many Centers, Glasson has endured a shift from his lifetime focus of figuration to abstraction over the past few years. Conceptually, however, similar ideas surrounding the inescapable interconnectedness of life in all its forms, and how to further nurture and realize those connections, continue to be investigated. Constantly in observance of his ever changing environment, Glasson creates these paintings in response to internal feelings of reverence, fear, and absolute awe. Compositions are built up through the implementation of earthlike tones and color palettes that allude to time of day and temperature, while obscured representations of landscapes express a yearning to communicate a feeling experienced in the wilderness, and fulfill a desire for closeness that only portraying a subject can provide. Each painting’s configuration of distinct singular elements to forge one cohesive whole communicates the interrelation between the individual and the absolute, of which Glasson is primarily curious.
Aaron Glasson: A Circle with Many Centers is on view from May 6th through June 24th, 2023 at Louis Buhl & Co.
Paintings
Aaron Glasson – Weather Pattern
2023
Oil and wax on canvas
66h x 54w in
Aaron Glasson – Moonrise From Goat Mountiain
2023
Oil and wax on canvas
66h x 54w in
Aaron Glasson – Sand Storm (Ode to Agnes)
2023
Oil and wax on canvas
30h x 30w in
Aaron Glasson – Night Winds through Window
2023
Oil and wax on canvas
30h x 30w in
Aaron Glasson — Boulder Stacks at Saw Tooth
2023
Oil and wax on canvas
30h x 30w in
Aaron Glasson — View of Giant Rock
2023
Oil on canvas
30h x 30w in
Aaron Glasson – Snow Day
2023
Oil, sand, and wax on canvas
20h x 16w in
Aaron Glasson – Moth and the Valley
2023
Oil, sand, and wax on canvas
20h x 16w in
Aaron Glasson – Dust Cloud
2023
Oil, sand, and wax on canvas
20h x 16w in