pinkney herbert | tower of noise
Exhibition Dates: June 15 – July 28, 2018
Sandler Hudson Gallery is pleased to announce the latest body of work by abstract painter Pinkney Herbert in his solo show, Tower of Noise. With bold and frenzied compositions, Herbert explores the intensity of life in a bustling city. The artist divides his time between Memphis and New York City and these paintings bring together the disparate sensory experiences of inhabiting each place. The work is filled with tension, and often that tension explodes with a richness of color that is both overwhelming and inviting.
Herbert understands the tension he creates as a dichotomy between the intuitive and intellectual. At times the paintings read almost as maplike—there are lines that look as though they could be pathways, streets, or underground tunnel systems—but where they lead is anyone’s guess. The city-planning motifs that pop up and serve as indicators of practical intelligence, such as a pattern like orange construction fencing, a staircase, or pipes, become enveloped in the blurry and energetic compositions that give us feeling for the environment that only enriches our understanding of our own cityscapes.
PINKNEY HERBERT (b. 1954) lives and works in Memphis, TN and New York, NY. He received his BA from Rhodes College and his MFA from the University of Memphis. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and USIA-Arts America. He has shown in art exhibitions throughout the US, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia. Permanent collections include the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Memphis Brooks Museum, and the Arkansas Arts Center. He is a fellow and board member of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Amhert, VA, and VCCA-France, Auvillar, France. He is the founder and director of Marshal Arts, an alternative gallery established in 1992 in Memphis, TN. He has taught at the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School, the University of Memphis and the Memphis College of Art. He has been a visiting artist at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, Hanoi University of Fine Arts, and the Oberfalzer Kuntzlerhaus, Schwandorf, Germany.