Signage (Artists in Cars) curated by Joanne Freeman, Vice President of the American Abstract Artists

“My forms are geometric, but they don’t interact in a geometric sense. They’re just forms that exist everywhere, even if you don’t see them.”

Ellsworth Kelly

Billboards and signage dominate the back highways and cities of urban America. Like most urban kids I grew up in the back seat of a car, hyper aware of signage and neon. The visual landscape of stacked letters, blinking lights, bold color, and oversized pictures became lodged in my psyche at an early age. During the mid-twentieth century many artists associated with Colorfield painting and the New York School were influenced by the massive scale of architecture, advertisements and media found in the cities.Their canvases reflected those oversized experiences. The current artists participating in Signage, utilize an abstract language of symbols, overlapping forms, idiosyncratic geometry and pure saturated color. Their choices both conscious and unconscious reference the verticality, congestion and energy of the contemporary urban environment.

Joanne Freeman