May 28, 2002 – August 2, 2002 David Mann Paintings: 1999-2002

David Mann
Paintings: 1999-2002

David Mann’s luminous paintings effortlessly harmonize apparently contradictory forces in both their content and their creation.

The subjects of the paintings are both transcendent and deeply personal. They contain images that evoke the familiar – cellular structures, anatomy, nebulae – while remaining intentionally ambiguous. They portray a world apparently both microscopic and macroscopic.

Liquid Light 56” x 47” oil, acrylic on panel 2000

Secret Symphony 66" x 72" oil, acrylic on panel 1999

In their execution, Mann’s paintings convey an experience of the magic and mystery of light, space, and time, while maintaining a balance between the illusion of depth and the reality of their existence as paint on a surface. They capture the look and light of technological means of imaging, while remaining decidedly hand-made.

To obtain such disparate effects Mann utilizes multiple layers of translucent paint applied through spraying, dripping and the use of squeegees varying in size from ¾” to 8’ (reminiscent of Mann’s childhood spent watching his father’s commercial printmaking studio). He continues these layers until painting achieves a balance and particular kind of luminosity.

Sequence 72" x 84" oil, alkyd, acrylic on canvas 2002

Serious Moonlight 72" x 60" oil, acrylic on panel 2000

Of this “look” – very unlike the traditional brushstroke that typifies human involvement in a painting – Mann has said: ‘I sought ways of distancing the “look” of the gesture from the historically laden brushstroke. At the same time, I was increasingly fascinated with more contemporary and technological means of imaging, specifically the Scanning Electron Microscope and other scientific ways of accessing worlds normally unavailable to the naked eye. I wanted my paintings to capture the “look” and the light if the SEM, that eerie inner glow. It seemed to me that this way of seeing things rhymed with what I saw as a basic artistic intent, namely, that the artist gives access to a different reality, previously invisible.”

Mann’s paintings engage the viewer in a direct experience, evoking any number of elements without being unequivocally any one thing.

“I’m very aware of how the work reveals its process. I want the paintings to look as if they’ve arrived, or, even better, as if they were natural forms waiting to be discovered… much the way microscopic worlds exist simultaneously with our prosaic world, awaiting visit and investigation.”