While Mr. Forager & I are on the road, making our way to California, we’re rerunning Artsy Forager’s most popular posts. This post originally published on February 8, 2012. Enjoy!
Life, in any form, is unpredictable. Sometimes we like the result of a chance taken, sometimes we don’t. Yet each step of faith is a step in the right direction. New York artist Laura Gurton takes a gamble each time she begins a new work, never knowing how her materials will react with one another. But it is that tempting of fate which results in these spontaneously speculative paintings.
The artist takes advantage of the unpredictable reactions of layers of oil paint and alkyd resin to create work that uses the elemental properties of both to mimic cellular forms– our most basic building block of life.
The shapes morph and float as cells or micro-organisms under a microscope, taking on ghostly abstract forms that can seem often friendly or fiendish.
I find fascinating Gurton’s use of such basic chemistry to produce beautifully composed, intricate abstract work that reminds us of the beginning of life. Just as each of us are all made of the similar cellular building blocks, yet we are each unique, so are each of these works beautifully singular. It’s almost as if each one could be a glimpse into the molecular network of an individual.
To see more of Laura Gurton’s work, please visit her website.
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Featured image is From the Unknown Species series #50, oil and alkyd on linen, 18×18. All images are via the artist’s website.
