SHAPES
  
Paintings by
COLIN OULIGHAN
  
Artists Talk
August 7th, 2011
   
Untitled from eric ayotte on Vimeo.
   
WORK Gallery is pleased to present Shapes, new paintings by Red Hook, Brooklyn based painter Colin Oulighan. In this series of work, Oulighan began with the idea of creating an archetypical abstract painting, then set about exploding our expectations and assumptions of what abstract and representational paintings can be and how they function. Serial, geometric forms depicted in arbitrary colors occupy all of Oulighan’s paintings, resting on the bottom edge of the canvas. What would seem like simple abstraction is actually simple representation, for the geometric arrangements are taken verbatim from children’s blocks haphazardly dropped, then projected onto canvas. They are rendered in illusionisitic spaces replete with artificial lighting and gravity. The paintings are light hearted and lucid, the results of an uncomplicated process that yields concrete compositions resistant to interpretation, narrative, and unburdened by emotion or fantasy.
  

Shapes Installation Shot, 2011

Shapes Installation Shot, 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (All Blue), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (White), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (Yellow), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (All Black), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (Red), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (Black), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (Green), 2011

Colin Oulighan Shapes (All Brown), 2011