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For Immediate Release

“LIQUID LIGHT: THREE LARGE-SCALE YELLOW-BASED PAINTINGS” OPENS AT WADE WILSON ART, HOUSTON

Exhibit marks concrete painter Joseph Marioni’s first Texas solo exhibition

(Houston, September 5, 2007) –Houstonians will have an opportunity to view works by one of the most respected contemporary colorists at Wade Wilson ART’s exhibition “Liquid Light: Three Large-Scale Yellow Based Paintings.” This is the first solo exhibition in Texas of the concrete painter Joseph Marioni. The show will open on Friday, Nov. 16 with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008.

The paintings of New York artist Joseph Marioni cast the viewer into the realms of possibility that exist between color and light. “Light transforms our vision - particularly as we examine a work of art. Within it we gain knowledge and insight into the artist’s spirit. Without it, perspective evades us, as meaning passes into shadow,” states Wade Wilson, director of Wade Wilson ART.

In these paintings by Marioni color confronts the viewer as their eye moves across a singular plane upon which the artist applies the perfect compilation of layers of paint. The pigment meets on a
surface of linen, resulting in luminous color. Their structure seems to define the architecture of painting itself.

“Marioni’s paintings live between the worlds of material and light in a rarified place created by the painter for the sole purpose of joining the two into a singular expression, an authentic vision that forever melds into one,” said Wilson. “Witnessing the powerful presence of Marioni’s paintings, executed at a scale of extraordinary proportion, it remains clear: the painter, Joseph Marioni, ascends to a place in the history of art that is his alone.”

A foremost contemporary figure in modern painting, Marioni is on the other side of Rothko and Ryman. The catalog of his works begins in 1970 and includes paintings in museum collections in the United States and Europe. In addition to permanent collection pieces in institutions including Whitney Museum of Modern Art - New York, Fogg Art Museum - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg - Monchengladbach, Germany, the new KOLUMBA Museum in Köln, Germany, Basel Kunstmuseum - Basel, Switzerland and others, there are more than 400 of Marioni’s paintings owned by private collectors. He gained international recognition in 1988 with his first solo museum exhibition at Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg.

Marioni’s monochrome works are characterized by delicate layering of acrylic paint applied with a roller on stretched linen. A curtain of fluid color edges the canvas and allows the viewer a peer into the depth of human perception.

“I am trying to capture the personality of color,” said Marioni. “I make portraits of color.”

Uniquely, the exhibition at Wade Wilson ART will feature only three, large-scale works. Each canvas measures approximately 108 by 120 inches. This is a most extraordinary and ambitious exhibition for the gallery.

Renowned art historian Michael Fried has noted, “I consider Marioni to be one of the foremost painters at work anywhere at the present, and the great and thought-provoking surprise his art has given me is not only that it transcends the previous limitations of the monochrome, but also that is the first body of work I have seen that suggests that the Minimalist intervention may have had productive consequences for painting of the highest ambition.”

Famed critic and curator Barbara Rose observes, “Marioni’s insistence on the uniqueness, the unrepeatability and the intimacy of the relationship between artist and viewer is more than a moral stance; it amounts to a statement about the nature of privilege, of the purchase of time and leisure, and the luxury of the direct, first hand unmediated experience.”

Liquid Light: Three Large-Scale Yellow-Based Paintings at Wade Wilson Art marks a center point in a cycle of Joseph Marioni’s formidable career. This exhibit will preface the more inclusive survey of 25 years of painting opening at the McNay Museum in San Antonio in October 2008. The time-line below reflects the exhibitions from last summer through early 2008:

June 5 - July 7, 2007
Selections from the Concrete, H. Paxton Moore Fine Art Gallery, El Centro College, Dallas, Texas
(Curated by Wade Wilson)

Sept. 14, 2007
Opening Exhibition: KOLUMBA Museum, Köln, Germany

Sept. 22, 2007
Japan and the West: Fulfilled Emptiness, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany

Sept. 25, 2007
Joseph Marioni Paintings, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth

Nov. 16, 2007 – Jan. 5, 2008:
Liquid Light: Three Large-scale Yellow-Based Paintings, Wade Wilson ART
Reception for the artist: 6 - 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 16, 2007

Oct. 27, 2008 – Jan. 2009:
Liquid Light, The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
The exhibit will feature 25 years of painting ranging from small works, to the largest measuring 9 x 11 feet.

ABOUT WADE WILSON ART:

Founded in March 2005, Wade Wilson ART brings a fresh voice to the Houston visual arts community by presenting artists who primarily have not been seen in Houston, but whose work reflects current movements in international art circles. The Gallery, owned by Gregg Tyson and siblings Wade Wilson and Caroline Wilson Tyson, showcases painters and sculptors whose work explores use of light and color including Joseph Marioni, Jill Moser, Alan Ebnother, Mark Williams, John Zurier and Shawn Wallis. Wade Wilson ART is located at 4411 Montrose Blvd. Ste. #200, Houston, TX 77006. Wade Wilson ART is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. -5:30 p.m. For more information about the gallery or the Joseph Marioni exhibit, please visit www.wadewilsonart.com.

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For media inquiries, please contact Heather Wagner at heather@juiceconsulting.net or 713 208 3891.