I arrived in Troy on Easter Sunday in 2015 after painting for over two decades in the deep south.
In my paintings the elements of dance, stage and music are congruent with the trio of movement in painting (dance), the painting plane or surface (stage) and harmonic patterning (music).
The contrapuntal fugue form is compatible with my natural preference to syncopation and inclination to work in harmony within structures that are as free as possible & containing complex elements, yet rooted in simplicity.
The paintings are inspired by musical structures in the sense that in music the patterning has variance, rather than the exact patterning of applied design. The fugal structures investigated repeats patterns using two dimensions to create contrapuntal & polyphonic synchronizations. Concern with harmony in the form of balance is a key attribute of this practice.
Patterns, rhythms and metaphoric transformations such as alchemy, taoist thought, music and poetry have had and continue to have significant influences on my thought and practice.
Fugue States opened at the Chapel Cultural Center in Troy New York, April 2 and was on view until May 27 2019.
My paintings have been featured in exhibitions such as A Sense of Place at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida Contemporary at the Baker Museum in Naples, A Painter’s Progress at Florida Gulf Coast University and To the North at Thomas Aquinas College at Sparkill, which was my first solo exhibition in New York State.
Morgan T Paine of Florida Gulf Coast University says, “Bryant’s work connect with and expands the vocabulary of abstract painting” and John Casey of the Island Sun, also in Florida, dubbed her painting “Abstraction at its best.”
The Cultural Center is located with the Chapel in a modernist structure which also contains medieval sculpture. There are numerous places to perch while contemplating the twenty six paintings on view.
The Chapel Cultural Center is located at 2125 Burdett Avenue in Troy New York and is open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and 10 AM to 5 PM Saturday.
“We think we are very mundane, but we are all capable of fugues.” Agnes Martin