March 16, 2012. 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Williams McCall Gallery is holding a Meet-the-Artist Reception featuring Ernie Bynum on Friday, March 16th from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Ernie Bynum speaks with the voice of a colorist concentrating not on painting pretty pictures but on painting images that relate to his past, but in a manner that creates mystery and intrigue. He applies layer upon layer of paint, reductive in imagery, yet expansive and dynamic in its depth of color. A whole dream-like world resonates with inner life and inner light, drawing the viewer through the plane into this deep, mysterious essence.
Over time Bynum’s work has become much less figurative. A passing suggestion of image becomes an expression of color and light. His shapes seem to dissolve into space; and whereas in the past, one could more clearly see the skiff, cottage, wharf, or water tower, now the eye catches only a furtive glimpse of these images, receding in the expanding field of color. There are no horizon lines in Bynum’s pieces. He reaches for the ultimate mystery, creating what could be a landscape, a still life, or an archetypal animal beckoning to the viewer’s spirit. In some of his newly completed work he has drawn on imagery he began working with twenty years ago; a cow, a rooster, a horse, flowers, all more abstract than figurative but which continue to reveal the diversity of his creative genius.
Bynum says: “Painting is a process that begins with no preconceived notions of what I will paint. I let my subconscious take over and begin working on my compositions as ideas begin to flow. I do not rely on technique but rather on my ideas and sense of composition. Using both brush and palette knife, I build up colors, so that in the process images emerge, unique to each painting, imagery that resonates with warmth, sensitivity, peacefulness and tranquility. For me, my palette is merely for experimentation. I would never be able to mix the same color twice. Each new day, I am challenged to mix new colors.”
These paintings originate at the intersection of the psychological and the literal. Through his unique vocabulary, Bynum creates work that is a compelling union of luminous color and profound affect. He draws inspiration from his experience of nature and place, from his youth in the pine forests of North Carolina, his exposure as a teenager to coastal Connecticut and Cape Cod, his adult years spent in New Mexico, the Caribbean and West Africa, and now in Provincetown, New York City, and Connecticut. The separation of nature and spirit is not a reality for Bynum. For Bynum, it cannot be discussed; it must be painted.
Bynum received his BS degree from Fordham University in New York City. He concluded his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, graduating Cum Laude with an MA. Prior to painting full time, Bynum was a psychotherapist. Bynum’s work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in Provincetown; New York City; Arroyo Seco, New Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Saba, Netherlands Antilles. His paintings are in private and corporate collections throughout the USA, in the Caribbean, Europe and Australia.
The Williams McCall Gallery is the newest addition to the trendy South of Fifth neighborhood of South Beach, and the first fine art gallery in the area. The stylishly minimalist gallery exhibits emerging, mid-career and established artists creating contemporary paintings, works on paper, fine art photography, encaustic collage and assemblage.
For more information, call 786.359.4321 or visit www.williamsmccallgallery.com.
Williams McCall Gallery
110 Washington Avenue, CU-3
Miami Beach, FL 33139
786.359.4321
[email protected]
www.williamsmccallgallery.com
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