DENNIS FOSTER
Green Flash Where The Grass Grows Greener

February 13 to March 22, 2020

Ampersand is pleased to present Green Flash Where the Grass Grows Greener, an exhibition of ten new paintings by Portland artist Dennis Foster. Standing in his studio I see a photo of Donavan taped to the wall, a fragment from an old magazine or record insert. He’s shirtless, smoking a cigarette, sitting on a beach chair. The words “green flash” penciled on the wall just above the picture. Overhead bright sun streams in from a skylight. It’s that false February sun that tricks you into believing spring has arrived in the Northwest. I ask Dennis about green flash. “It's a song by Suzanne Kraft, in rotation as I started visualizing and working on these paintings.” A list of words. Restrictive. Reduced. Reuse. Reductive. Reinterpret. Reintegrate. Reimagine. Reassembled. Rambling. Radiance. Rah-Rah. Range. Randomly. Ravenous. Reaction. Readjustment. Reappear. Rearrangement. Reassuring. Rebound. Recall. Recede. Recline. The paintings, he notes, are less rigid and more organic as compared to other recent works that were bound by grid and a strict use of color. Working with Sonia Delauny on his mind. “Warm days filled with sunshine and just a little bit of rain.” Harmony as a group or standing alone. Like objects on a shelf, things you intend to remember. “In the great green room, there was a telephone, and a red balloon.” Intention with color directed at playfulness. We talk about the deep dark of January and he mentions his recent trip to Los Angeles, where the outline of these paintings emerged and grew. When I'm down there, he says, it's easy to second guess living in Portland. The grass is greener. There's always a chance to capture that elusive sunset flash.

Dennis Foster lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He is originally from Los Angeles, California. He studied photography at Pacific Northwest College of Arts. This is his first exhibition at Ampersand.

From Home, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD

Backstroke, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD

Rollercoaster Rider, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD

Blue Period, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD

Indian Summer, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD

Division & Cleland, 2020
Acrylic and flash on canvas
20 x 16 inches
SOLD