Oliver Vernon’s New Body of Work Moves Away from Collage

In Oliver Vernon’s new abstract works at an upcoming KIRK Gallery show, the artist abandons collage entirely and pushes his work forward only using acrylics. “Brushing Away the Veil,” starting on Nov. 2, represents a new body of work and direction for the Brooklynite. There’s another new component to the works, as well, as Vernon says “is the excavation of buried paint layers through sanding. Since many of these pieces have had numerous stages of accumulation, they were like gold mines of hidden color.” Vernon, as seen below, was the cover artist for Hi-Fructose Vol. 17

Vernon offers some insight into how his process has changed. “This body of work was a return to direct painting after years of using collage as a means to deliver paint to surface,” the artist says. “Priorly I was painting on large rolls of paper as a starting point, to enable a sense of freedom of loose paint handling without needing to know how it would fit into the eventual compositions. The paper was then ripped and torn into fragments which were then recomposed onto panel. This allowed me to find new types of juxtapositions of color and form outside of my habitual tendencies, which fulfilled a need to plow into uncharted visual territory. I adhered to this method so as to develop a consistent new language. As satisfying as it was, there was a building desire to return to direct painting, and then finally for this show I abandoned the collage process altogether.”

See more works from the show on the gallery’s site and the artist’s own page.