RHYTHM & RHYME : a solo exhibition of works by John Dempcy
ZINC contemporary is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new acrylic work by Seattle-based artist John Dempcy entitled RHYTHM & RHYME. With a BA in Art and an AA in Graphic Design, Dempcy has fostered a rich visual language of elements and abstractions based on scientific motifs, using each panel to methodically explore ideas. Drawing from the natural mysteries of the material world, the artist sources much of his imagery from the Pacific Northwest landscape and his autodidactic studies of the sciences.
Dempcy’s representation of grids and lines simulate the strumming of a chord on the guitar; the painted lines like the strings of an instrument, brushstrokes interrupting the variant colors, working back and forth with blues and yellows, reds and greens layering and building emotion like a musical interlude. Each band signifies a frequency or sound waves that exalts a synchronous palette.
Before beginning a piece he pores through books filling his mind while examining microbiology, music, or quantum physics, his art then becomes an imaginative map of transient discovery. He allows the act of painting to be pre-eminent - threads of ideas developing from a deeply subconscious place. His method is in tandem with minimalist and process-art, and he cites inspiration from Washington artist Jaq Chartier.
“I come to my work with ideas I’ve considered or developed and try to realize them in a painting. It usually fails. There is always a struggle and I find it is often with my ego pressing for a particular outcome. It is when I surrender my conceit, let the subconscious take over, and just respond to the paint and color that I find discovery and resolution in a painting.”
-John Dempcy
