Spence in Exhibition at Edward Thorp Gallery
Two paintings by visual arts faculty member Andy Spence are presently featured in New Works, a group show by gallery artists at the Edward Thorp Gallery in New York. These two recent pieces, Variation 2 and Untitled (Corner Painting 1), will be on view at the Gallery through August 1, 2008.
The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship in painting, Spence is widely known for his abstract and “chromatically intense” paintings and prints that have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. In a 2006 piece from Art in America, critic Faye Hirsch wrote, “The control that Spence, for one, exercises in his cool abstractions based on common objects is a welcome relief from the overheated randomness of a good deal of contemporary painting. For years, he’s been honing his images to the edge of recognizability, elegantly choreographing spare compositions and capturing a rare emotional plenitude in layers of patient brushwork.” Spence’s work is represented in major museum collections including The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Edward Thorp Gallery, which represents Spence’s work, hosted his three most recent solo exhibitions in 2001, 2002, and 2006. He has taught at Bennington since 1994.