AUSTIN EDDY
Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Sometimes Grey

June 28 to August 12

Ampersand is pleased to present Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Sometimes Grey, an exhibition of new paintings, quilts and an artist’s book by Austin Eddy. As the title implies, the artist has reduced his palate in favor of something simple and primary. It underscores the power of color in setting tone, in this case playful and inviting. The limitation, he adds, also allowed for a focus on simplified forms and constructed figures in the process of building implied narratives. Painted atop heavily layered pieces of cut and collaged paper, the paintings initially read as pure abstraction, a dynamic surface that yields pleasure while viewing. But considered in relation to their titles, it’s clear that here we have a series of short stories as well. Looking at the paintings becomes a dynamic game of comparing Eddy’s forms with the mental images his titles might conjure. The process of constructing images through various stacked and layered forms extends to his quilts, shown here for the first time. Intrigued by the logic of quilting, he considers the process a type of sculptural collage, similar to assemblage but more practical. By nature capable of conveying stories through the course of generational time, the quilt becomes an apt platform for the personal narratives he projects on animals, objects and sometimes imagined human forms.           

His artist's book, PATTERN NO. 4, is the newest installment of an ongoing series of books (published through the gallery imprint) for which artists and thinkers are invited to create, collect or converse about pattern making. In addition to the book itself, each of the original works are available as a deluxe edition.

Order PATTERN NO. 4 here >
Order Deluxe Edition here >

Austin Eddy lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. His work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including, most recently, Follow The Crooked Path (Though It Be Longer) at Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York and Houten Paddestoelen with Ornis Althuis Gallery in Amsterdam.

Soda Head, 2018
Flashe, acrylic and paper collage on paper
26 x 20 inches

Two Headed Worm Stuck Between Two Places, 2018
Flashe, acrylic and paper collage on paper
26 x 20 inches

Great Sea Monster, 2018
Quilted fabric
56 1/2 x 40 1/2 inches

Two Houses Does Not Always Make One Home, 2018
Flashe, acrylic and paper collage on paper
26 x 20 inches

One Tree at Night and The Same Tree During the Day, 2018
Quilted fabric
49 1/2 x 38 inches

A Swan by a Tree Over the Course of the Day, 2018
Flashe, acrylic and paper collage on paper
26 x 20 inches

Flower on the Path to Some Place Else, 2018
Flashe, acrylic and paper collage on paper
26 x 20 inches

le jardin de toulouries, 2018
Quilted fabric
53 1/2 x 46 inches