A Healthy Sense of All I Do Not Know
Mixed Greens, New York 2008
Mixed Greens is pleased to announce Howard Fonda's third solo show with the gallery. In this exhibition, he will debut a new body of paintings and drawings.
In this latest series, Fonda's sincere and introspective paintings are each made alla prima, in one sitting. This urgency of mark results in a raw and visceral surface reminiscent of an underpainting, but with the craft and precision of finish. Full of rich color and earthy hues, each painting embodies a directness that binds form with content as Fonda explores his relationship to meaning and truth.
Instead of adhering to a singular aesthetic, Fonda privaleges his studio practice and process, where his choice of subject dictates form. As a result, he adeptly crosses genres and applies methods of both abstraction and representation. With reverence, Fonda references an historical narrative ranging from Platonic thought to Classical sculpture; Aboriginal textiles to mythic storytelling; and Romantic literature to expressionism.
By framing existence within spirituality, semantics, metaphysics and paint itself, Fonda's confidence and curiosity, coupled with a self-deprecating sense of humor, remind us all that there is much about the world we do not know.