DAVID FOSS
Exits and Entrances

September 10 – October 16, 2010
Artists Reception, September 11, 5 – 7 pm
First Friday, October 1, 6 – 8:30 pm

LGTripp Gallery is pleased to announce its first one-person exhibition of recent paintings by Philadelphia based artist, David Foss. This is Foss’s fourth solo exhibition presented by Director Luella Tripp.

The title of this exhibition, Exits and Entrances, is in ways descriptive of the artistic evolution clearly unfolding in David Foss’s new work. In earlier paintings, Foss immersed himself in the complex creative process of mixing various materials, explored and experimented with the interaction of paints and chemicals over time and used a broad spectrum of colors from the bright, rich and vibrant to browns, blacks and metallic. The lustrous texture and dense surfaces of his large paintings often seemed to replicate nature in their transformation.

In recent years, geometric structures began to emerge in Foss’s paintings. Now they are a reoccurring and notable theme in this recent series. Symbolic forms include such architectural details as doorways, windows, gateways and columns. Color palette is restricted to predominately bold reds and intense blacks, accented with shellac, now a Foss trademark, and whitewashes that veil a receding structure. Immense, loosely defined forms appear to float across or drip down the canvas and broad gestural markings punctuate or soften the composition. Uncompromised is Foss’s commitment to spontaneity, an intuitive and expressive approach, creating in the moment without preconceived ideas. It is here his work comes to life. The exhibition will also include sculpture and works on paper.

States Foss, “My art expresses the eternal cycles between the forces of order and entropy. Everything crosses the threshold of change leading towards new patterns and ways of being. As persons, events and things exit or fade away, there is also a continual rebirth of hopeful entrances into new forms of meaning and natural graces.”

David Foss was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1959 and spent his youth in the Midwest. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1986 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy/Religious Studies from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, in 1981.

Since moving to Philadelphia in 1989, David Foss’s life has revolved around the visual arts. He has an extensive exhibition history throughout the Delaware Valley region and the United States. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the University of Texas, Center for Brain Health, Dallas, TX; Kleinbard Bell & Brecker, LLP, Philadelphia, PA; First Coventry, Inc., Fort Washington, PA; and the Westin Hotel, Washington, D.C.