Roy Dowell

About

Known for multilayered abstractions with a collage sensibility, Roy Dowell’s latest paintings present sunbaked rhythms of geometric shapes and overlapping patterns. The artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery features a series of intimately scaled works, opening on 8 February at 520 West 21st Street. 

Dowell’s unique visual language, developed over the past 45 years, stems from his interest in cross-cultural iconography and symbols.  A perpetual observer, he finds inspiration in a myriad of visual cues, with nods to the canon of modern and contemporary art; ethnographic patterns and textiles; advertising trends and design; and even traffic lights. The paintings act as a conduit for excavating and unraveling meaning, inviting the viewer to search for connections between interpretive possibilities. 

With a process as varied and layered as his ideation for the work, Dowell thins Flashe paints to achieve a transparent, matte quality once dry. Patterns build, solidify, and suggest movement, with pulsating concentric circles hypnotically pulling the viewer past the surface. In the catalogue essay, David Pagel writes, “Dowell locks down a composition by eliminating details and blocking out a large or small section, like an edit that makes everything more concise, spot-on, point-blank… he dials-down his colors as he paints layer after layer, necessitating slow-reads, rather than fast-takes, and satisfying long looks, rather than swift glances.”