Using polymers, dyes, wood, and plexiglass, Christian Sampson explores how color, light, and shadow, while shifting between two and three dimensions, create form. I saw two of Sampson’s ingenious but humble pieces last week in “itinerant ones,” an exhibition at STOREFRONT that was curated by painter Jules de Balincourt. A 2006 Hunter MFA grad, Sampson lives in Brooklyn and thinks about things like 19th century phantasmagorical use of color, the psychology of the shadow, magic lantern slides, Donald Judd’s use of translucency, and Paul Scheerbart’s essays. “I think my form is created by combining the amorphous as a catalyst against the elemental frame,” Sampson said in a 2009 interview with independent curator Jon Lutz. “I’m interested in painting as a hyperbolic gesture, one that interweaves wave-lengths of light color, and structure into a form both frozen and animated…” Sampson’s work riffs on notions that Donald Judd and James Turrell’s work explores, but his intuitive, less rigorous approach seems well-suited to our DIY times.
“itinerant ones,” artists include Ariel Dill, Denise Kupferschmidt, Christian Sampson, Adam Sipe and Tyrome Tripoli. Curated by Jules de Balincourt. STOREFRONT, Brooklyn, NY. Through July 17, 2011.
Related posts:
Notes from Bushwick: “Itinerant Ones” at STOREFRONT (via Hyperallergic)
Interview with Ariel Dill and Christian Sampson at The Old Gold.
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IMAGES is a regular feature devoted to work by painters who deserve more love.
I came to see this post expecting something pretty lame…. but I liked it a lot.
It has something very unique about, pure and is honest about its intentions.
Thanks for introducing me to Christian's work!
Very interesting. What are the light sources? Just the outside lights and whatever light is in the room (fluorescents, spots, etc.)?
Matt, I think Christian uses natural and ambient light–no special spotlights that I noticed.