Who is Gary Lang?
Upon entering the visual world of Gary Lang's art, there is a vast universe to be explored. Gary Lang (1950) is an artist known for his iconic paintings of concentric circles, which he creates in a vein of repetition that is similar to the practice of meditation. His physical act of painting requires intense focus on the interaction between brush, hand, paint and canvas.
In his most recent series - BLUELIGHT, these apparently mechanical paintings are a concentration on color, light and form. Each pictorial circular line is realized with immense detail and meticulousness. These hand-painted layers trick the eye with slight gradients that create optical illusions. Each color and hue in these dazzling paintings interacts with the next to strike every note in perfect harmony. It's easy to see the resemblance between his work to artists like Josef Albers and Frank Stella seems logical.
Repetition and color in the works of Gary Lang
Gary Lang's paintings explore repetition and color – bright, nuanced and shocking. The Tondos, up to four meters in diameter, are painted in concentric rings of variable colors, sometimes gradual, sometimes abrupt. From a distance, they vibrate dizzily; when approaching, obvious brush marks show a steady human hand. His physical act of painting requires intense focus on the interaction between brush, hand, paint and canvas. This level of concentration forces Lang to be "hyper present" with his works – an element that translates from the artist to the viewer. About his work, Lang says: “the process is, ultimately, a meditation focused on the pleasure of accumulating and organizing energy, while investigating the potential of color”.
The Career and Recognition of Gary Lang
Gary Lang is recognized as one of the most distinguished artists in contemporary Western art, and no account of recent art history would be complete without mentioning his iconic paintings of concentric circles. Gary Lang's artistic evolution from 1975 to the present has been an investigation into the dynamics of visual consciousness articulated through his demanding paintings.
Gary Lang is an artist with international exhibitions, including a recent solo exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, he studied at the California Institute of Art and Yale University. In the 1970s, he lived in Barcelona on a Fulbright/Hayes Travel Fellowship and lived in New York and Los Angeles before settling in Ojai, CA. Lang has had a long relationship with Quint Gallery, with the first of several solo exhibitions in 1982. Gary Lang's paintings are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, CA; Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Santa Monica, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Portland Museum of Art, ME; and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, among others. Lang currently lives and works in Ojai, CA.
