Paul Kolker contemporary art exhibition Dot Derivatives Synthèse Abstractifying the Abstract NYC gallery

Paul Kolker is pleased to present his seventy-second solo exhibition, “Dot Derivatives Synthèse… Abstractifying the Abstract,” at his studio, the PAUL KOLKER collection, at 511 West 25th Street from November 21, 2019 through January 31, 2020. Synthèse is Kolker’s painterly -photographic process used to colorize dot patterns layered over a figural image or, as in this exhibition, layered over photographs of his abstract decalcomania paintings; Fig. 1. A concurrent exhibition, “Paul Kolker: Abstract Decalcomania… An Experiment in Perception” is ongoing at 600 Third Avenue; Fig. 2.

Abstract Painting - Paul Kolker - New York

Fig. 1 – Installation Mockup of Paul Kolker: tints and shades of gray decalcomania dot derivatives/12 synthèse, 2019 and tints and shades of color decalcomania dot derivatives/12 synthèse, 2019

Kolker’s exhibitions study human perception and understanding. His works are the test cards which employ experimental psychological methods to make us aware of those subliminal digital era effects of an immersive technology replete with rectilinear dot-gridded television, computer and smart phone display screens as well as the organic and fractal-like dot patterns first used more than a century ago by Shinobu Ishihara to test color vision. More recently, in the 1980s, Benoit Mandelbrot described those same dots of many sizes as the fractal foam of our universe, a panoply of dots of different sizes which are extant throughout nature as rain drops on a windshield, the frothing of the surf and the holes in Swiss cheese and breads. For Kolker, “a dot may be a universe… and a universe, a dot.”

Fig. 2 – Paul Kolker: 600 Third Avenue Installation view of Abstract Decalcomania… An Experiment In Perception

In this exhibition Kolker sets his so-named ‘Ishidot’ patterns free as overlays of clear glass marbles and larger spheres which cover his paintings, projecting the refracted light of subjacent colors and anachromics; Fig. 3. Not merely does Kolker render a figural image abstract, but he even extrapolates his abstract decalcomania paintings into multiple layers of dots to heighten our nuanced perceptions of those dot derivatives which exhibit particular recursive patterns of Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry of nature; as Kolker explains, “to abstractify that which is already abstract.”

Fig. 3 – Paul Kolker: about spherical space synthèse, 2019

Kolker’s synthèse process is recursive; like the process of halftone printing or painting four layers of dot grids over one another which he has published in 2014, ‘Paul Kolker, The New Abstract’. To test this recursive expansion and its perceptual effects, Kolker photographs and stacks twelve layers of Ishidots paintings over a photograph of another abstract decalcomania painting as depicted in the installation mock-up, Fig. 1. Thirteen combinations and permutations of this more expansive synthèse process were created as inkjet color prints on canvas. Another thirteen were printed in black and white as a control for this experiment in perception. Five sets of the experimental and control groups appear in this exhibition to test the beholder’s perception as well as to foster her understanding of the contrasting effects of optical color juxtaposition and mixing as opposed to color blindness and a shades of gray experience.

Paul Kolker (b. 1935) is a New York based artist with doctorate degrees in medicine and law. He is Fellow American College of Surgeons, Fellow American College of Legal Medicine and Emeritus Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Northwell Glen Cove Hospital, having practiced cardiothoracic surgery on Long Island from 1969 to 2013. In October 2001 Kolker moved his Long Island studio to his current address in the Chelsea art district so that he could produce his works and curate his exhibitions as an experiment in perception. His studio and gallery have together become his laboratory in which the viewer is the measuring instrument for Kolker’s art as a perceptual experiment. Dot Derivatives Synthèse… Abstractifying the Abstract is Kolker’s seventy-second solo exhibition.

In Paul Kolker: Dot Derivatives Synthèse… Abstractifying the Abstract, twenty-four works are on view from November 21, 2019 through January 31, 2020 at the Paul Kolker collection, 511 West 25th Street in Chelsea, adjacent to the HighLine between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.
Paul Kolker: About Healthcare… What’s Next And On Whose Dime?, twenty-six new works are on view from through November 15, 2019 at the Paul Kolker collection. Paul Kolker: Abstract Decalcomania… An Experiment in Perception is ongoing at 600 Third Avenue.

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