Corey Drieth
Praise

August 29 to September 27, 2020

Ampersand is pleased to present Praise, an exhibition of new paintings by Corey Drieth. The featured works are a continuation of 15 years of time Drieth has spent in the studio making delicate small-scale abstract paintings. Inspired by daily life, art history and religious traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Quaker Christianity, his work explores contemplative spiritual experience. “Like many people today,” he writes, “I want to define my own spiritual path and I do so by borrowing from multiple theological, literary and artistic precedents. Subsequently, my goal is to create an iconography that is both deeply personal and highly evocative; I want to make lyrically poetic objects that are simultaneously intimate, strange, mysterious and expansive. More specifically, I am interested in the square as both a design element and a historically sacred principle. The act of exploring these ideas via painting has become the center of my spiritual practice.”

His process begins with the basic design and construction materials of gouache and wood. Through the economical use of line, color, texture and the illusion of light and space, Drieth creates a visual dialogue between painted surface and unprimed wooden substrate. “The sometimes awkward, sometimes tense, sometimes graceful relationships that occur embodies my own search for meaning,” he notes, “the search for a balance between the inner and the outer, the intuitive and the rational, the timeless and temporary—a search that is defined by the ritual of making and remaking. Ultimately, I believe that experiences of subtle structural beauty can be incredibly valuable. Because they require quietude during a time of de-humanizing speed, clutter and noise, they serve as both a foil to the frenetic activity of contemporary life and as a method of sustenance within it.”

Corey Drieth lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Comparative Religious Studies and Studio Art from Colorado State University and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Carolina. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States, including in Call & Response, an exhibition with Lena Wolff at Ampersand in summer 2013. This is his second exhibition at the gallery.