Jeff Robinson, Mechanical Trope, wood, mixed media
@ The Times Club, Iowa City, IA
February 2013
In the book, What Painting Is, James Elkins defines painting as a combination of two ingredients: water (medium) and stone (pigment). The action of painting is a process of negotiating the two. Water and Stone presents two artists whose work necessitates material functions. Abandoning the image, these works make visible the central role of color and substance in producing sensation. In Michael Rutherford’s work, the support on which the paint is applied performs as a prominent character in the piece, asserting equality between a colored shape and the curl of the paper. Jeff Robinson’s work organizes relationships between paint and non-paint; requiring the viewer to consider the difference between the canonical art material and the detritus of human consumption.
Michael Rutherford is the creator and editor of Painter'sBread.com and its companion site, Postmodern Toaster. He was born and raised in Iowa and was introduced to art while working as a guard at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth. In 1999 he graduated from Buena Vista University with a B.A. http://michaelrutherfordstudio.blogspot.com/
Jeff Robinson received his MFA in painting from Illinois State University in 2011. In addition to his studio practice, Jeff teaches full-time as an Instructor of Art and Visual Arts Gallery Director at the University of Illinois Springfield. http://www.jeffrobinsonstudios.com