Doug Glovaski's abstract paintings elegantly harness rich textural applications of paint. Working on canvases slightly more elongated than traditional canvas ratios, one senses a deliberate focus the artist has cast on a particular view. Each canvas is divided into two asymmetrical parts - one that is filled with scraped, layered, dripping paint, the other, a field of solid color. This division of space creates a duality on which both parts rely and create a lasting visual effect. The shift from dreamy, romantic expressions of paint to the bold quadrants of color grounds the paintings. Glovaski neither allows viewers to be swept off by romantic gestures of paint, nor does he allow the discipline of minimalist color to bring us too close to stark reality. These contrasts carry the viewer's imagination to art historical references and to the process of painting itself. Where Glovaski's paint is free-flowing, the movement of paint is tangible. In some pieces, paint is piled thick and high yet the effect is of light silky fabric or gauze draped over a field of color. In areas of controlled geometry, while color prevails, Glovaski allows moments of texture to come through. While the spatial push and pull Glovaski creates in his work brings viewers to appreciate different relationships of paint and color, it is the emotional core of the work that Glovaski taps into. The artist attempts to transport his audience to a place of divine beauty, a theme that has threaded throughout the history of art and a tradition into which Glovaski's work is seamlessly entrenched.

Maruta Taube
Ruth Bachofner Gallery