In January, Joshua Liner Gallery hosted a great dual exhibition from New York artists Josh Sperling & Sam Friedman. Entitled From the Cradle to the Grave, this showcase put together two lifelong friends with roots spanning to their youthful days. Evoking influences of postwar masters Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, both Friedman and Sperling’s works explore the impacts of visual perception and movement. As seen in their contrasting styles, both artists push the boundaries with bold color combinations, high contrast, and structure.
For Sperling, we were intrigued by the structured canvases and the layered frameworks bringing to life his paintings with a definite emphasis on the three dimensional aspect of his ideas. For Friedman, his approach is a bit more traditional, but not less interesting. We’ve long been intrigued by the loud color selection, but this time we notice that he chose to contrast his bright palette with a selection of monotone grayscale paintings. This muted combination further pushes the direct sensory experience that Friedman delivers in his creations.
Discuss Sam Friedman here.
