Artists - Dunn and Brown Contemporary

PRESS RELEASE

Sam Gummelt
Paintings
September 5 through October 5, 2002

Dunn and Brown is pleased to announce the opening of Sam Gummelt: Paintings. This exhibition marks Gummelt’s 20th solo exhibition in his thirty year career. While completing his M.F.A. at Southern Methodist University, Gummelt began exhibiting in Dallas in the early 1970s. He soon distinguished himself as a leading abstract painter in Texas.

Paintings includes approximately sixteen paintings and works on paper from large-scale wood reliefs to intimate works on paper . These works, inspired by Gummelt’s environment, reflect the artist’s ongoing interest in the subtleties of architecture and man-made structures. Closely observing the inherent geometry and abstract surfaces of walls, doors, and windows, Gummelt infuses these features into the layered surfaces of his paintings. The paintings become structures themselves, as Gummelt constructs each painting out of pieces and planes of wood. Slowly and deliberately, he then begins layering the paint, creating rich surfaces that evoke a sense of place and time. In his larger, meditative paintings Galveston, Taos, and Petite Jean, Gummelt reflects upon the intangible nature of memory and the nostalgia of places from one’s past. Similar to bodies of water and the surfaces of landscape, these painting shift and change color as the daylight changes, resulting in a complex play of light, color, and surface. In the works on paper, Gummelt meticulously builds the surface with paper-thin layers of paint, resulting in an intricate combination of color and texture.

The opening reception for the artist will be from noon until 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 14 in conjunction with the Dallas Art Dealers’ Association Gallery Walk. Dunn and Brown Contemporary is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and by appointment. Images are available upon request.