KES ZAPKUS PAINTINGS
 

April 28 - May 3, 2015

The sla307 gallery space opened its freshly renewed premises with a celebratory presentation of several modernist works by Kes Zapkus. The exhibit was from March 28 to May 3, 2015. “Traffic” a 25’ long, four panel painting in bright industrial colors, from 1976, indicates an aesthetic on the cusp of change. (Zapkus’ work evolves cyclically between classical and romantic formal polarities.) Away from the classical horizontal / vertical resolution, to a set of rash, oblique panels acting independently against an opposing pull of a saturated black panel, balance is achieved as in a fulcrum. The romantic aspect was visible on the opposite wall in a painting made ten years later. “Toledo” of 1986 completes the transformation to a structural expressionism with allusions to El Greco’s Inquisition town of Toledo, in somber browns and blues and strident linearity. This selected exhibit demonstrates the seriousness and flexibility of the gallery space to present a concept in its full-fledged power successfully.

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