Nohra Haime Gallery is pleased to present Gregg Louis’ fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, entitled Mirage. The exhibition represents the evolution of the artist’s Blind Paintings, a body of work started in 2015 with a series of self-portrait paintings, later turning his gaze toward the landscape and objects surrounding him. Louis paints fractured images that feel akin to a blurred glance, rather than a clear depiction of an object or place.
Since 2015, Louis has traveled to diverse and exotic locations, including the High Deserts of Southern California, the sultry French Riviera and the vibrant streets of Cartagena de Indias. Throughout his travels, the artist explored unique landscapes and scenery, producing drawings along the way that became the foundation for this exhibition, Mirage.
His distinct technique starts with a blind contour drawing done in situ. He later transfers the drawing onto an unprimed canvas where he applies water-based inks within the negative spaces of the drawn lines. As the ink slowly begins to dry it recedes into the canvas creating brightly dyed shapes that sometimes flow in and out of one another. The result of this process is a series of cursory stains that create a distorted representation of Louis’ original subject.
The exhibition also features kinetic objects in the lineage of Calder's hanging mobiles. In them, Louis explores the negative spaces of his blind drawings, creating hanging constellations of abstract shapes. Each part of the whole dances with each other in space falling in and out of recognition as they gently spin in circles.
Born in St. Louis, where he currently lives and works, Louis received his BFA in Painting from Missouri State University in 2006 and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2009. He has had solo exhibitions and projects at Nohra Haime Gallery, New York; Hverfisgalleri, Reykjavik; HMK, Hoorn Netherlands (collaborative project). He has also participated in group exhibitions in the United States and abroad at Frieze, London; Vienna Contemporary, Vienna; ArtBo, Bogotá; Nohra Haime Gallery, New York; Postmaster Gallery, New York; Galerist, Istanbul; Here Art Center, New York; Interstate Projects, Brooklyn; and Los Caminos, Saint Louis. In 2009, Louis was an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sculpture Magazine, and several other prominent online blogs and journals have covered his work. Louis is represented by Nohra Haime Gallery in New York.