The Green Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Mike Paré Rama Lama Ding Dong. This will be the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. On view will be a new series of paintings. The work invites absurdity, playfulness and wonder, as the viewer negotiates various meanderings within.
Painting operates as a window for Paré, or perhaps, a window within windows. As one engages the work, we find smaller “paintings” nestled inside larger scenes or frameworks. A landscape might be found within an object or portrait and an interior environment may blur with the exterior, as Paré finds casual solutions for compartmentalizing pictorial information.
This visual strategy is the result of a generative process that allows simple prompts to unfold into a variety of directions. Paintings seem to follow the logic of a drawing; of “not knowing” what the painting will become when the first mark or idea is laid down. Although Paré often works in an additive manner, his mark and gesture are distilled, able to withstand various divergences. Color choice shares in a similar duality, feeling incidental and intuitive, yet deft. These formal devices mirror qualities found in music, where the pattern of a rhythm carries (or frames) the opportunity for deviation and discovery. Similar strategies can be found in improvisation and comedy.
Windows and various framing devices allow Paré to explore classical notions of intoxication, via Dionysus. As one is lured into the depths of these paintings, various layers of interest and intrigue unfold. Indulging in visual treats, the work opens up a space for fantastical contemplation. Personal and collective memory blur; places we may have been or seen, merge and diverge. Abbreviated figures, objects and motifs, point us toward various subcultures and nitches spanning decades of time.
A plethora of references feel graspable. Dogs, cats, patterns, plants, and wine, are pulled from everyday experience. There is a natural art and life dichotomy that Paré intermingles with. High and low are synonymous, as they are already today. Paintings become an invitation for mental wandering; to be dazzled and disconnected; to indulge in the pleasure of seeing and a vessel to rethink the possibilities therein.
Please join us for the opening reception with the artist from 5 - 7 pm on Friday, September 8th.