5040 Sanderlin Ave. Suite 103
Memphis
TN 38117
Michael Barringer, solo exhibition “Threshold” April 3 – 27.
Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 6 – 8 pm
“We’ve all had experiences which seem to connect us to a larger existence. We are transported to a threshold of new understanding and resonance. As a visual artist, I celebrate this unique human capacity – I channel sensations, emotions, and ideas, producing a unique voice which lives in the work that I make.
Gee’s Bend quilts, Hubble Telescope images, cave art, sacred sites, nature forms, sacred texts, ancient rituals, jazz music, and poetry: these are some of the starting points, as they may trigger this sense of expansion of self into a more resonant life.
Each painting I make is a symbol. They are not directly definable by rationality, and remain open-ended in meaning, existing as objects for our intuition to decipher. These paintings are rich in detail and subtle in their construction, so I like to think that the viewer will enjoy a slow, rewarding revelation with extended looking.
I make a rigorously formal art, but I have faith that this meditative system of replication and mantra-like activity will produce objects of joy, warmth, and plentitude. And rather than explaining away the work, I again have faith that these objects will operate on their own terms, leaving the viewer to enjoy the literal act of seeing.” – Michael Barringer