Adam Wolpert:
New Small Paintings

July 13—August 19, 2007

Employing a range of techniques and motifs, the work of painter Adam Wolpert reflects a lifelong engagement with nature. His widely varied imagery explores the themes of cycles, relationships and balance while investigating the subtle distinction between the representational and the abstract; remarkable stylistic variation and dramatic breadth of scale are also hallmarks of his painting style.

Untitled,
oil on board, 4" X 4.75", 2007

A passionate artist from an early age, Wolpert explored the media of performance, ceramics, sculpture and collage before turning seriously to painting. After a rigorous 2 year training in classical realism at Studio Cecil Graves in Florence, Italy, where he immersed himself in the work of the great European masters, he completed an MFA at UC San Diego. He has had major gallery representation since 1988, including many solo exhibitions and group shows. His work has most recently been shown at the Sonoma County Museum of Art in Santa Rosa, as well as in a 3-person exhibition here at the Quicksilver Mine Co in 2006.

Adam Wolpert's approach to his art changes with the seasons, moving from plein air landscape painting in the warmer months to working in his studio during the winter rains. His naturalistic outdoor paintings speak of his relationship with the land, in particular his home in West Sonoma County at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC), which he co-founded in 1994. A decade-old dialogue with OAEC’s spirited gardens and wildlands is expressed through his painting and invites the viewer to recall their own capacity to relate deeply to a place.

Untitled Diptych
oil on board, 4.75" X 8", 2007

His studio work is often haunting and dreamlike: fish in water, amorphous fields, floating objects, skyscapes and landscapes of symbols. These studio paintings may be presented as triptychs or four-panel "quartets" which juxtapose images, spaces and textures, inviting one to engage in a construction of their own narrative.

For this show of new work at Quicksilver, Wolpert draws on twenty years of experience painting directly from nature as he explores the realm of abstraction. These exciting small oil paintings employ a diverse visual vocabulary, ranging from bold gestural brushwork to finely nuanced color fields, and are characterized by rich active surfaces. Many of the pieces in this show are also in triptych and diptych format, adding to their intriguing ambiguity.

Untitled Diptych
oil on board, 4.75" X 8", 2007

click on image for larger view

Presented as part of Small Things Considered: 3 Venues, 3 Views, Wolpert's exhibition at Quicksilver joins simultaneous shows at the A Street Gallery in Santa Rosa and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts
in a broad spectrum presentation of small scale fine art in Sonoma County.

Adam Wolpert: New Small Paintings opens on Saturday, July 14th with an Artist Reception from 4—6pm.

Of the Land 2006

Premonitions:
Paintings by Adam Wolpert 2011