At once familiar and unreal, ‘Shaping the Idea,’ — a solo exhibition featuring the work of Richard Whitten — runs now through February 7 at the Chazan Gallery. The realism of the painting, and Whitten’s effective use of trompe l’oeil, can trick the viewer into moments of recognition, but these faux framed boxes and fanciful gizmos spring solely from the mind of the artist.
This exhibition examines the two major themes that have inspired Richard Whitten’s recent paintings: invented machines incorporated into invented architectural space, and the conception of the painting itself as a game. . . .
Whitten is drawn to antique toys, mechanical devices and scientific instruments – particularly those that involve repetitive motion. He has built several “working models ” of such invented machines, which he uses as references for his paintings. Whitten places these “machines” into the world of the paintings – into imagined architecture often inspired or “discovered” in dreams. There, they wait for the moment when the viewer’s glance or “touch” sets them in motion.
Whitten — a professor of painting and the department chairperson at Rhode Island College — is also drawn to “Tivoli” Games and “Dexterity Puzzles” (little boxes that allow one to move ball bearings and other object into specified holes without touching them). Some of his paintings are invented versions of these games.
Seen here: Les Nymphéas (The Lilypads), oil and gold and copper leaf on wood panel, 47″ x 55″.
‘Shaping the Idea’ runs through February 7, Chazan Gallery at Wheeler, 228 Angell Street, (directions)