Ed Touchette: New Construction at Trident Gallery

Description

Trident Gallery is very pleased to present New Construction, an exhibition of new paintings on canvas and paper by Ed Touchette. New Construction is Touchette’s second solo exhibition at Trident Gallery and will be on view August 19 – September 17, 2017. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday 10–7; Sunday, Monday, Thursday 10–5; and by appointment. The gallery will host an Opening Reception for the artist on Saturday, August 19, 5–7pm. The following weekend, on Sunday, August 27, at 4pm, the gallery will host a Conversation with Ed Touchette about his artistic process and recent work. Ed Touchette's latest paintings are often simplified shapes and colors in an energetic composition, establishing a kinetic tension and visual liveliness. Simple painted black lines create remarkable depth and volume, or else cluster into runes. The architectural wonder which inspires these meditations becomes explicit in his more complex compositions, which seem like the spontaneous records of a mind marveling at a public monument, a busy construction site, or a bustling city from a high vantage. At the same time, Touchette’s paintings are also strikingly generative, not recorded impressions but the expression of imaginative forces, optimism, joy, and ideas of order: the assertion of his architectural imagination extends to structure the cosmos. This duality suggests parallels between these paintings and poetry, which poet Wallace Stevens has described as an interdependence of imagination and reality as equals. Touchette's paintings, like poetry, are principled constructions of creative imagination. They offer a vision of a chaotic utopia and invite us to participate through aesthetic contemplation and delight. Trident Gallery offers an extensive, curated selection of beautiful and intelligent contemporary art by artists having or gaining national prominence. Gallery Director Dr. Matthew Swift curates and produces the exhibitions, drawing on over twenty years of multi-disciplinary scholarship, teaching, and creative exploration. The Trident Live Art Series presents performances by seasoned professionals showing experimental and collaborative work in the intimate salon setting of the gallery and in the community. Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift curates and produces the performances, drawing on over twenty years of experience in the United States and abroad as a dance artist, choreographer, and producer. For further information, visit TridentGallery.com or call the gallery at 978-491-7785.