Paul Glabicki’s “The Light Drawing Series” at the Kim Foster Gallery

THE LIGHT drawing series by Paul Glabicki explores notions of light in a variety of form, context, symbol, signification, and association. Sources, data and references – often presented and composed simultaneously – encompass the colliding worlds of science, religion, and art. From light as an elemental particle/photon, a measurable wave set in motion or shaped by forces of gravity, to spectral and spiritual phenomena, visual experience and component of color and color perception, or subjective/objective experience, each piece in the series evolves in complexity, juxtaposition, scale, optical play, and manipulation of data and medium.

Botticelli’s spectral spirits (from his Dante’s Inferno drawings) share a multilayered compositional space with data on optics and quantum physics. Light (Yellow) is placed in stark contrast with dark (Black). Theories of Josef Albers collide with the theories of Albert Einstein, properties of crystals, alchemy and mysticism. Representations of light and shape contrast spatially and in mass with gestural marks both real (actual paint/brush strokes) and simulated (drawn and replicated echoes).

Like previous drawing series (ACCOUNTING FOR, ORDER, and RELATIVITY) strategies of semiotics and language are at play, filtering and arranging the selection and composition of thematic material, while orchestrated through the interaction of surface, media, and the imagination of the artist.