September 5, 2012

Exhibition of Gary Komarin’s Cake Paintings

San Francisco, CA — September 5, 2012 — MARCH is pleased to present Cake Paintings, an exhibition featuring works on paper by Gary Komarin.  The exhibition will open on September 27, 2012, with a reception from 5 - 8PM, and continue through November.
 
Inspired by his mother, a consummate baker, and his father, an architect, Komarin’s Cake Paintings series cleverly explores the intersection of the domestic with the architectural. The water-based enamel and spackle paintings are rendered on paper bags.  The reoccurring cake iconography is endlessly evocative —lending itself to many layers of interpretation and the spontaneous, bold lines, combined with the unusual media, strike a delicate balance between sophistication and simplicity.
“I have long been intrigued by the way paper bags are designed and the way that they fold back into such a beautifully flat object after being so very volumetric in their ‘open’ stance,” said Komarin.   “These bags have a terrific surface on which to paint and an almost puffy physicality once paint is applied.”
 
Like many of the best artists of his generation Gary is indebted to the New York School, especially his mentor Philip Guston, who he studied with at Boston University.  Guston’s influence is evident in Komarin’s assimilation of drawing and painting. Komarin builds layered surfaces with water-based house paint in a thinned out sluice mixed with spackle and water. The paint offers hybrid colors that seem slightly ‘off’ and the spackle creates a beautiful matte surface,  
 
Komarin has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In 1996, Komarin’s work was included in a pivotal exhibition at 41 Greene Street in New York City, along with work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Philip Guston and Bill Traylor.  In 2008, he had a solo museum exhibition at the Musee Kiyoharu Shirakaba in Japan. Upcoming exhibitions include a show in Dublin, featuring works by Komarin, Robert Motherwell and Larry Poons, as well as exhibitions in Madrid, Korea and at London’s Vigo Gallery.
 
Articles and reviews of Komarin’s work have appeared in the New York Times, Art in America and Arts Magazine and his work can be found in many noted museums and collections throughout the world, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Denver Art Museum and, the Boston University Museum of Fine Arts.
 
Komarin lives and works in Roxbury, Connecticut.
 
Event Information:
Cake Paintings
Opening reception: September 27 | 5PM - 8PM
On view through November 2012
 
MARCH
3075 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA
www.marchsf.com
 
ABOUT MARCH
Sam Hamilton’s MARCH provides exquisite items for the kitchen, pantry and table. Curated and collaborative collections include pottery from Victoria Morris, clothing from Matt Dick, pots from Brooklyn Copper Cookware, leather accents from Rene Holguin, bespoke butcher blocks by Union Studio, ceramics from Brickett Davda, and table linens from Boxwood Linens.  MARCH also presents iconic slow cookers from AGA and cast iron cookware from Lodge, along with the new MARCH Pantry label, which includes jams, vinegars and spices.  For more information, please visit:  www.marchsf.com.