On a bright, sunny day in 2000, rural West Virginia-born painter Lynn Boggess took a break from his studio to work en plein air. But on his way out, while juggling brushes and tubes of oil paint, he added another tool to the mix: a forlorn cement trowel. Unknowingly, he had just redefined his style. As the artist’s biography reveals, “The trowel afforded him an immediacy that a brush could not. Because the tool could cover large areas quickly, he was able to accurately record a specific time and place.” The trowel also allowed Boggess to treat paint as a sculptural medium, imbuing each canvas with “a heightened physical presence.” As Chris Foley of The Haen Gallery notes, “More than any other artist that I can think of, Lynn has reinvented landscape painting. He has eschewed reiteration so common to the genre and has gone into the woods and returned with paintings that are palpable, visceral, and transformative.” For the 17th year, Foley’s gallery on Biltmore Avenue will host a solo show of Boggess’ works. The exhibition opens in late October and runs through November.
October 21-November 30
Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct. 21, 5:30-7:30pm
The Haen Gallery / 52 Biltmore Ave., Asheville / thehaengallery.com