Michael Venezia: Versions

“I continued to be interested in finding ways for paint to arrive on the surface – landing without my touching it.”
Michael Venezia

The second solo show of Michael Venezia (*1935, New York, US) draws a line from his cutting-edge pictorial inventions from around 1970 to recent works, that stand out in contemporary art’s variety by their concision and freshness. From his early years, ‘Stripe Paintings’ that examine the independency of picture carrier and paint application. A main focus of the exhibition is on the impressive historical ‘Spray Paintings’ some of which are on view for the first time in decades. At the end of the 1960s, the colour spray gun allowed Venezia to abandon the brush stroke highly celebrated by Abstract Expressionism, thus generating his paintings from an interplay between artistic decisions and coincidences. Finally, the gallery presents recent ‘Bar Paintings’ with which the artist pushes the boundaries between painting and object.