To quote painter Carrie Moyer, “Painting is about paint.” Jennifer Moses and Jeffrey Hull both love paint and everything about it. These two artists share this love, and a life-long commitment to the material itself, to the paint. Yet viewed side by side each has a different style and a different way of presenting ideas about abstraction. Jeff Hull’s paintings and drawings could be described as beautiful but not elegant; Columbia University professor Gregory Amenoff comes to mind as an influence. Jennifer Moses’ work always seems to be seeking resolution and makes a nod to that of the painter Arshile Gorky.
One of the most valued aspects of an artist’s activity is the act of observation. This certainly describes what Moses and Hull do, using the paint, the “stuff”, to express what they carry inside, what they experience and observe internally: the accumulation of narrative, shapes, color, experiences, associations. Moses and Hull are artists who make this demand on themselves, to express what is ineffable. Requiring passion and diligence, they ask the viewer to join them on their journey, letting us see what they see.
Image: Jeffrey Hull, April in Paris, Oil on Canvas, 13 x 18 inches, 2103.
Kingston Gallery 