Text provided by the gallery: Pablo’s Birthday is pleased to present Dark | Light | Space, the gallery’s 9th solo exhibition with Frank Gerritz, commemorating a twenty-year collaboration with the artist. In a spirited exchange, the sculptures and drawings murmur to one another across dimensions; a seeming simplicity born from an intense human connection. It is this connection where Gerritz attempts to create light in the darkness.
The exhibition explores dimensionality through varying techniques including; paintstick on acid-free cardboard mounted on aluminum dibond, paintstick on anodized aluminum, and solid cast iron sculptures. The show’s title is procured from these details, materials, and processes, referencing each work and its relationship to dimension and light. The dark void of the paintstick, the refraction and reflection of oil paintstick on anodized aluminum, and the iron block of the third dimension converse in the gallery space. Together, the work inquires participation from the viewer; one imagines the work continually evolving as the space’s light evolves, but equally as the viewer moves.
The formal qualities of Gerritz’s work are marked by precision, proportion, and geometric composition, rendered in a minimal palette of black, white, and light-induced grayscale. Despite the seemingly harsh, calculative nature of these forms, each piece reveals a profound humanness. The cast iron sculptures are formed from measurements echoing the artist’s own body. The weight, dimensions, and distance between the sculptures mimic the physical proportions of a human body. The dark expanses of paintstick serve as a reminder of mortality and invite introspection. The interaction of light upon the surface of painstick on anodized aluminum engages the space, colors, light conditions that surround it; in turn becoming a volume of attention from the viewer and other works in its domain. In result, the remnants of human thought and human hand are ever present within even the most minute nuances of the light and space.
Gerritz’s work has consistently challenged minimalist conventions. Since the beginning, the process has resulted in a minimal color palette and determined geometry, yet always serves as a reference and embodiment of human quality, connection, and existence.
