Layering Reality

Blake Baxter and David Mackenzie
Layering Reality
30 September – 21 October, 2018

 

BoxoPROJECTS is very happy to present Layering Reality, an exhibition of works by Blake Baxter and David Mackenzie, two of the leading non-representational artists working in the Joshua Tree region. Each artist relies on a process of experimentation, and a careful layering of materials, that coalesce into nuanced surfaces which break with the conventional plane.

Blake Baxter is best known for his monochromatic paintings incorporating aggregates such as sand, cement, coal slag, and diatomaceous earth. Layer by layer, materials are carefully sifted onto painted surfaces and fixed with acrylic washes. These works evolve with light conditions and the perspective of the observer, both physical and mental, providing one the opportunity to explore the relationship between form and void.

David Mackenzie, known as an artist’s artist, has been experimenting with paint formulas for decades. He lays down these ‘skins’, often over lines of cord, as a way of controlling spatial perception in a non-traditional manner. His canvases share an affinity with deconstructivist architecture that breaks with modernism, and invites the viewer to re-evaluate the reality they have created for themselves.

Both artists were born in Los Angeles, have lived and worked in New York (both involved with the Waterfront Artists Coalition) and now focus their efforts in Joshua Tree.

Blake Baxter was born in Los Angeles and attended UCLA School of Arts and Architecture before completing his BA in Fine Art at UC Santa Cruz. He has exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, Seattle, Joshua Tree and Palm Springs; and was an exhibiting member of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition.

David Mackenzie was born in Los Angeles and received both his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied ceramics, sculpture and painting.His work has been included in the Whitney Biennial and has been shown in Italy, France, Germany, and Russia. He has received grants from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation and the National Foundation for the Arts. David has work in the Phillips Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of American Art, the Art in Embassies program, the Oakland Art Museum, and the Rene di Rosa Foundation among others.