Pat Coomey Thornton and John Havens Thornton

November 30 - December 31, 2011

Dedee Shattuck Gallery’s last show of our first season was a colorful and dynamic exploration of abstraction. John Havens Thornton and Pat Coomey Thornton investigate abstraction from very different standpoints, yet with some similarities, resulting in a dynamic visual conversation. Havens Thornton composes careful geometries and figurative references that vibrate with his signature handling of the painted surface. His work uses color and line deliberately and thoughtfully, creating paintings that are introspective and captivating. Coomey Thornton’s work contrasts with layering, mark making, and a vital expressiveness bursting from the canvas. She views line as a temporal element, and color as a spatial one, and interweaves them together, twisting and turning them on each other with bounding emotional energy. This is our final exhibition of this year before we reopen next April.