James Harris Gallery is pleased to announce its second solo exhibition by sculptor Richard Rezac. The artist will present five sculptures along with one drawing. Rezac imbues a dynamic tension both in his sculptures and their relationship to the viewer. The elements of each work are composed according to a syntax combining reduced forms to create a formal language. Each sculptural piece is meticulously worked out on paper arranging every element with an analytical relationship to another. Though principally calculated, this process is also initiated by and guided within intuition. Thus his corresponding drawings can be seen as an insight into the artist’s working process and yet stand alone as beautiful works.

This exhibition traces some of the ways Rezac uses an abstract vocabulary to create variety and subtlety. Some works were inspired by the pictorial conventions of line, color and space. In lieu of the hand-work that would eschew illusionistic qualities of paintings, Rezac's parsed forms create specific relationships to one another. Expansiveness is suggested by regularity and repetition.

Acutely aware of a work’s relationship to the viewer, Rezac's sculptures are cantilevered overhead, placed on the floor or mounted both parallel and perpendicular to the wall. In two works, ovoid forms balance on horizontal lines of saturated color and punctuate an aluminum surface. In another work, orange and green cylindrical shapes made of cast translucent polyurethane appear to migrate across a silvery surface creating diagonal relationships. On closer inspection a subtle pairing is revealed, duplicating and replicating an underlying order. It is through contemplative viewing that the power of the artist’s reductive voice is revealed.

Richard Rezac’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. His work was recently included in the 48th Corcoran Gallery of Art Biennial. A ten-year survey of his work is currently being organized by the Portland Art Museum and will open in June of 2006. He recently received a prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant.