Creeper, 2006
acrylic on canvas
60 x 72 inches
Grotto, 2005
acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Two Trees, 2006
acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Undergrowth, 2006
acrylic on canvas
60 x 72 inches
Softwall, 2006
acrylic on canvas
72 x 60 inches
Jennifer Coates' vividly colored, metaphysical paintings utilize the conventions of landscape as an anchor for hallucinatory visions that reference the mind and the body simultaneously. Expanses of sky or sea coalesce into pools of thought-like reflection; clouds of geometry warp into an ecstatic vortex; horizons fissure and swell like skin; and intricate vines tangle into knots of energized ganglia.
Coates contrasts an atmospheric radiance with meticulous detail, iconic directness with allusive abstraction. Varied painterly approaches are positioned against each other to create a disjunctive but idealistic experience of place.
Coates (b. 1973) lives and works in New York City, where she has exhibited frequently, with this being her second solo exhibition. She teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and often writes on art.
