Photos courtesy of Tim Amundson
More Or Less
Max Manning, Peter Shear, Jessica Simorte
October 2, 2015, 6-9 PM
More or Less, an exhibition of abstract paintings by Jessica Simorte, Max Manning and Peter Shear. The work focuses on the presence of paint as a malleable material, alluding to the balance of texture and flatness in each piece. The immediate sense of mark-making speaks to a shared intuition amongst these three distinct artists which is delicate, yet impactful. Within this selection of intimately scaled works, minute shifts in hue and surface feel monumental. Viewing the artists’ work in such close quarters, their respective motivations for painting are all at once made vulnerable, challenged, seen, and felt.
About Jessica Simorte:
Jessica Simorte completed her MFA at the University of Cincinnati in 2014 is currently teaching at Sam Houston State University. She has shown regionally, locally and internationally and has been included in numerous esteemed publications. Simorte’s practice serves as an ongoing examination of how art making can function as a mode of placemaking. Having experienced topophilia her entire life, the work ultimately focuses on drawing and painting as a means of navigating physical and intangible places. She is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, TX. www.jessicasimorte.com
About Max Manning:
Max Manning earned his MFA from the University of Cincinnati and his BFA from Bowling green State University. He has exhibited at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center and Espacio 20/20 in Puerto Rico. He is represented by En Em Art Space in Sacramento, California, and had a solo exhibition there in September 2015. Manning is interested in contemporary subjective experience, and through the use of an idiosyncratic painting language he vividly mirrors the complex and inexplicable fragments of human nature. www.maxmanningart.com
About Peter Shear:
Peter Shear is a self-taught painter living in Bloomington, Indiana. With materiality both generous and economical, Shear’s paintings carry an openness of address that invites viewers in to interpret works as they may. Selected solo exhibitions include DRAGON EXPRESS at Welcome Screen, London, in 2013 and Casting at Big Medium, Austin, Texas, 2014. Group and two-person exhibitions include Drops of Jupiter (2015) at Bannerette, Brooklyn; Basic Bitches (2014) at Skylab Gallery, Columbus, Ohio; Brute Moderates (2014) with Clinton King at Firework Space, Brooklyn; and The Double Down (2013), curated by Trudy Benson and Jason Stopa at Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn. Forthcoming exhibitions include Peer Review, curated by Matthew Macaulay and Phoebe Mitchell at Blyth Gallery, Imperial College of London, and The Black & White Project for the Sluice Art Fair, London, both 2015. www.petershear.com
