Getting Physical · New American Abstraction

Polly Apfelbaum · Jody Lomberg · Carter Potter · Charles Spurrier · John Torreano

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As a group, the works in Getting Physical: New American Abstraction toss pretense and solemnity right out the window. Which isn't to say that these free-wheeling pieces by Polly Apfelbaum, Jody Lomberg, Carter Potter, Charles Spurrier and John Torreano dispense with ambition or seriousness. On the contrary, they go to great lengths to deliver the visual goods without getting caught up in their own self-importance. A snappy sense of humor keeps these witty works down-to-earth, as a deep sense of whimsy ensures their user-friendliness. With a sly wink (or two) toward art history, these crafty abstractions cultivate wide-eyed wonder in the present instead of paying excessive homage to the past's gravitas. A lecture by Polly Apfelbaum will be featured in conjunction with the opening.

The gallery guide essay is by David Pagel, contributing art critic, The Los Angeles Times. Pagel will give a lecture Thursday, November 21, at 7:30 PM in Carlsen Center 211.

New York artist Polly Apfelbaum was born in 1955 in Abington, Pennsylvania. She studied at SUNY Purchase College and went on to earn her BFA at Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania in 1978. 

Jody Lomberg lives and works in New York. Her acrylic and yarn paintings are on loan courtesy of the Jack Shainman Gallery.

Based in Los Angeles, artist Carter Potter was born in 1961 and earned an MFA in 1990 and a BA in 1987 from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Charles Spurrier was born in 1958 and graduated in 1983 with a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio, and received an MFA in 1985 from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

John Torreano was born in 1941 in Flint, Michigan. He currently lives and works in New York, where he heads the NYU graduate program in studio art. In 1967 he received an MFA from Ohio State University, Columbus. He earned a BFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1963, and in 1961 he graduated with an AA from Flint Community Junior College in Michigan.