Jeff Bailey Gallery is pleased to present Christian Maychack, Flats.
Maychack's new work consists of wall and floor objects, which in addition to their sculptural presence, utilize the visual language of abstract painting. Their near flat surfaces create a shallow visual field for the viewer to 'enter'.
Color and form (pigment, epoxy clay and wood) are joined to make not only the surfaces of each piece, but also their underlying supports. In this way, there is an interdependence between the pictorial space and physical space of the object. Flats, the title of the exhibition, is a nod in both directions.
Blue Through (CF23) is an amorphous, oval-like shape tilted at an angle and crossed by intersecting lines. These lines, which read as two-dimensional on the surface, are actually part of the wooden lattice that establishes a framework for the oval and extends beyond it. Various pigments compose the marbleized surface, creating a figure/ground relationship with the wooden lines. The pigments are imbedded in the epoxy clay and everything is fused together with the wooden lattice. Although the materials are fixed in place, the form seems to be in flux.
This amalgamation of sculpture and painting fosters a dialogue between both and breaks down the perceived hierarchies of each. Even so, there is a playfulness to the works and a give and take among them: finely cut wood contrasts with sections of found logs that have been worked into the epoxy clay. The wall mounted pieces extend from the wall, revealing the materials behind. Ovals and circles, made of pigment or wood, mirror one another and move between positive and negative space.
As Frank Stella famously said, "What you see is what you see". Regarding Maychack's work, perhaps the phrase should be expanded: What you see is what you see - almost.
This is Christian Maychack's third solo exhibition with the gallery. He has had other solo exhibitions at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco and the Sirius Art Center, Cobh, Ireland. Maychack's work was included in the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach and his sculptures were featured in Bay Area Now 4, a group exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He received his MFA from San Francisco State University in 2002 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2008. He has been an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony and Edward Albee Foundation. He is a 2012 fellow in painting from the New York Foundation of the Arts. Maychack lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.