Dusty Boynton: WORK ON PAPER

Denise Bibro Fine Art, 529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, NYC, is pleased to announce its second solo exhibition of Dusty Boynton, Work on Paper, from April 5 – May 5.

Dusty Boynton’s exhibition of prints applies her vocabulary of expressive marks and colorful subject matter. This suite of collagraphs and monoprints have been reworked with gouache paint, reclaiming some of the raw painterliness associated with Boynton’s work in oil.

The New York Times noted that her work has, “A Childlike Style that Isn’t Childish…” Indeed, Boynton isn’t attempting to convey exclusively juvenile subject matter. The work is more complex than that. Her eccentric repertoire of individual characters walk the line between being polite and disorderly. At times they can even seem ghoulish and lewd. Boynton uses all the formal and narrative devices at her disposal to keep the viewer guessing about the psychological nature of these works. A stunning large canvas in her last solo show featured of a crude and simple figure of a young blond girl entitled “Nude” that was as irresistible as it was awkward. The high-key color and seemingly clumsy marks of the piece often remind viewers of works made by the crayons of children, but the whimsical subject matter and gestural treatment are tainted with traces of more mature content. Sometimes one doesn’t know whether to laugh or blush.

This suite of prints succeeds with the same set of attributes, only the process has changed. Working in tandem with master printer Sarah Amos in northern Vermont, Boynton has been exploring an alternative process to elicit this characteristic sensibility. There is something more subdued and comforting in these smaller works. Where some of her larger works hulk over the viewer eerily, these are more approachable. The viewer may not be in danger of being swallowed whole by one of her creatures, but the drama isn’t any mellower in her work on paper.

Dusty Boynton has shown at Littlejohn Contemporary in New York City, Gallery Jupiter in Little Silver, New Jersey, and Steffany Martz Gallery in New York City. She has been including in dozens of group exhibitions including “In the Garden” at Barbara Krakow in Boston, “Book, Box, Word. Volume II” at the University of Florida and the North Miami Contemporary Art Center, and the “New Prints, 2002” exhibition at the International Print Center in New York. Her work has been covered in Art in America, Arts Magazine, New Art Examiner, The New York Times, and ArtNews.

There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 5 at 6-8pm.