Michael Childress: HUB

Consisting of rectangular units that are spaced and stacked vertically in combinations of three or four registers, the series explores languages of minimalism and geometric abstraction as ways to embody and delineate space. Each horizontal bracket forms a kind of grammatical syntax equipped with punctuated voids, bearing likeness to solid and broken lines that encompass trigrams of the I Ching. With his signature staining technique, Childress ushers his viewers across his surfaces through subtle transitions between hues, joining left and right, top to bottom, inward and outward. In Light Blue Lintel, the motif of the bridge comes forward as its symmetrical legs support a continuous stretch above; in Tiny Window, the tunnel takes precedence as concentric fields of color narrow in on a central opening. Depending on one’s vantage point, however, the two forms are also interchangeable. Bridges are shallow tunnels, and tunnels are underground bridges – essentially, two sides of the same coin.

Childress’s interest in how bridges and tunnels serve as conduits extends into the gallery’s architecture. HUB installs eighteen works in a grid spanning 360 degrees around a roughly square room, placing the viewer in a central position like the hub of a wheel. Circles and ovals occur regularly within the artist’s practice, both as an embodiment of centripetal and centrifugal actions and as a means to disrupt the rigid bounds of the square. This open-ended structure is substantiated through multiple combinations of rehangs that will take place throughout the run of the exhibition, which allows for Childress to shift channels and energies in order to achieve various harmonious states.