Untitled, Erik Schoonebeek, gouache on paper, 7.5†x 7.5â€, 2009
Geometry and color are the primary preoccupations of Erik Schoonebeek’s gouaches. By juxtaposing symbolic forms with bright colors, Schoonebeek says he seeks to “paint the confrontational quality of monuments, signs, masks, icons, and modern ideograms with the aim for the work to stare back at the viewer with a power that is sublime, yet humble, undeniable, but ultimately intangible.”
Often painting on old book covers and worn boxes, Schoonebeek said he “creates images that revisit the original experience of geometry in the architecture of past, and imagined, civilizations.”
Schoonebeek, who lives in Highland, had a solo show at Vassar College’s Palmer Gallery this summer, and he has exhibited at Dia: Beacon, Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, and Andrea Meislin Gallery in Manhattan. His gouache paintings will be exhibited at the Jeff Bailey Gallery in Manhattan as part of the group show “Champagne & Baloney,” which opens March 19 and runs through April 19. www.baileygallery.com.
