EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Surfaces brings together the artwork of Mark Brennan and Abraham Storer.  

Mark Brennan presents his Space in a Box paintings.  Measuring about a foot square, the pictures are extremely detailed oil paintings of the ocean. They portray the water and the sky in various weather conditions and times of day.  The paintings, all on paper, are framed in deep wooden boxes. 

Abraham Storer lived for six years in Israel, most of it in Jerusalem.  During that time, he produced the Soil and Sky pictures, diptychs comprised of two identical panels.  One is painted in atmospheric pastel tones suggestive of the sky.  The other is an assemblage of rock and dirt.  In each piece, the earth is taken from a specific place of historic or spiritual significance.

Both artists are residents of Cape Cod, Massachusetts now and continue to draw spiritual inspiration from the natural environment around them.  These two bodies of work share a strong affinity for each other:  both series present a strong dichotomy between two near polar forces.  One can easily infer a dialog between the immediate physical or earth bound nature of one element and the ethereal or spiritual nature of its opposite. In Brennan’s case, it is the vast expanse of the water trapped in the distressed wooden box like a soul encased in a body.  With Storer, the two elements, the physicality of the soil and the celestial atmosphere of the painted half, appear as a side by side couple.