Anoka Faruqee. Courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.
Anoka Faruqee. Courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.

 

Opening Saturday at Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco is a solo exhibition by Anoka Faruqee, “Substance and Accident”, featuring a new body of work: the moire paintings. The exhibition opens October 19th, and will be on view though December 7th.  The surfaces of these paintings appear refined and even digitally produced, closer inspection dispels that illusion, revealing the physicality both of the artistic process and of the paint itself.

 

Faruqee’s moire paintings refer to a common and unwanted effect of digital and print imagery, wherein overlapping patterns are mis-registered and optically confused. The patterns Faruqee produces also evoke interference effects in nature, like wave formations or magnetic fields. Faruqee intentionally reaffirms the place of color in painting – “fighting the chromophobic impulse,” as she calls it.

 

While these paintings are insistently optical, making them requires a sustained and physical process inherently prone to unpredictability. Faruqee rakes thick wet paint with custom-made, notched trowels. Despite the ostensible order and consistency derived from the employment of a tool, mistakes inevitably occur that reveal the labor of a human hand. Drips, uneven pressure, inconsistencies in paint thickness and slips of the hand are all variables that come into play.

 

For more information on “Substance and Accident” visit Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.