Stephen Blackburn, J. Gordon, March 21 – April 26, 2014

Posted on: Friday, March 21st, 2014

Stephen Blackburn Stephen Blackburn | Hobson, 2012 | Stainless steel, mild steel, found objects | 5' x 15"

Stephen Blackburn

Recent Work

J. Gordon J. Gordon | Thought & Memory, 2013 | Mixed media on shaped panel | 24" x 48"

J. Gordon

Recent Work

STEPHEN BLACKBURN
J. GORDON

March 21 – April 26, 2014
Artist Reception, March 22, 5 – 7 pm
First Friday, April 4, 6 – 8:30

LGTripp Gallery is pleased to present recent works by Stephen Blackburn and J. Gordon. The exhibit juxtaposes the sculptures of Stephen Blackburn with the paintings of J. Gordon. The works of both artists employ richly textured surfaces, found objects, and intricate geometries. For Gordon, texture and geometry are used to destabilize the very act of viewing, demonstrating the endless possibilities present within a single subject. Blackburn’s work moves from the opposite direction, each sculpture giving unified form to the visceral, ever-shifting interior of the sculptor’s mind. Blackburn has been represented by the gallerist since 2005. This is Blackburn’s third solo exhibition and Gordon’s first with LGTG.

Stephen Blackburn’s knowledge and experience of working with metal is the result of a career in the industrial mechanical field. A synoptic grasp of the medium imbues confidence and freedom to his sculptures. “Many of my sculptures are created and built in my mind, often without ever putting pen to paper.” Densely layered pieces of steel and unexpected found objects merge into imposing structures that are simultaneously creaturely and celestial. Blackburn’s characteristic interest in form is evident, but his current series displays an increasing attention to texture, lending his work a deep sense of enigma and wonder.

A native of the Philadelphia suburbs, Stephen Blackburn attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, graduating from the certificate program in 2001 with a major in sculpture. He was awarded the Fellowship Trust Prize, becoming the first recipient of the Women’s Board Prize at PAFA. Blackburn’s work is in private collections. His sculptures have been exhibited at LGTripp Gallery, Chester County Art Association, Penn State Great Valley, Immaculata University, and Gallery Siano.

J. Gordon’s paintings seek to capture the experience of mulitstable phenomena, exploring the line between dimension and disintegration. Out of a muted color palette, structures cohere and collapse in a dreamlike aura of believability. Strongly influenced by landscapes and quantum mechanics, his texturally mesmerizing paintings invite the viewer into a world of shifting forms, which rhythmically sway from imposing to implausible. Gordon invites the viewer to consider the limits of perception. “Matter, as we understand it on a quantum level, resembles the structures we dream of. Not so much a solid form as a smear of possibilities whose sum contain the idea of the subject in all its possible states.”

Gordon holds an MFA in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2011, and a BFA from the University of Kansas, 2003. He is a recent recipient of an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts and has exhibited his work across the country in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Seattle, Dallas, and Lawrence, KS and internationally in the UK. Gordon is currently based in Wilmington.

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