Wilding Cran Gallery is pleased to present Deliberation by Robert Moreland, featuring eleven new works.
Just when you think you have the measure of them, these composites of painting and sculpture slip out of mental reach. At first glance Moreland’s latest body of work evokes the geometry of industrial spaces: a saw roof; bi-fold windows; up-and-over garage doors…. But the closer you approach, the more the architectural undertones are disrupted. In the face of brightly painted, leather-hinged, canvas-covered wooden panels, architecture gives way to a story of making. Tacks, tucks, folds: no part of fabrication is disguised. These crafted elements may lurk in the shadows but they are handled in such a way as to become significant features. Like the sixties Minimalism movement that it references, Moreland’s work is without pretension; unlike the Minimalists, it is not devoid of emotion or artistic gesture. There are just discernible brush strokes on the painted surfaces, and his striking use of color points up the geometry of each piece.
Originally from south Louisiana, Robert Moreland was a 2016 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant Nominee and his work is part of both the Frederick R. Weisman Collection in Los Angeles and The Koo House Museum in Seoul. He has previously exhibited at The Hole, NYC; the Louisiana State Museum and the Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans; as well as internationally at g.gallery in Seoul, South Korea. After living in New Orleans, Moreland relocated to Los Angeles, where he now lives and works. This is Moreland’s second solo show at Wilding Cran Gallery following Slow Talker in 2018.