Dimensional Iterations
Gail Peter Borden
Galleri Urbane welcomes new work by Gail peter Borden for his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. In Dimensional Iterations, the artist and architect furthers his ongoing exploration of spatial contexts, formal apprehensions, and experiments in materiality. In three series which he calls “chapters,” Borden plays with materials and takes varied approaches to essentialism and minimalism. Resin panels, sculptural objects, and works on paper enter into succinct dialogue.
“All of them deal with systems of representation and systems of perception. So, how we see versus how we think we see,” Borden says. “[Artworks are] realized thought, and thus intrinsically perceived intellectually. That intellectual perception implies a system of language, and thus engages a sense of wonder about what it is that is being seen.”
Each series uses color and structure to create space and satisfies a desire for type and variance. Deep-set, resin-cast panels are imbued with an object-like quality, although they are wall hangings. Radiant and precise color fields create restrained, geometrically delineated surfaces, which are exquisitely self-contained, yet allow the possibility that the viewer will complete their composition, as their glossy skin takes in and interacts with the environment.. “There is a desire to eliminate the idea of the surface, but get depth,” Borden says.
Watch:
Get a closer look at the exhibition on video
Truly two-dimensional works — employing thick oil stick on watercolor paper — nevertheless investigate texture and depth, allowing the mark of the hand to show through planes of flatness. Meanwhile, sculptures of raw and painted structural lumber for the first time explore two distinct geometries — the cubic and the rectangular — in taut, modular iterations. These pieces are “arguably furniture-like: they could be a stool or a chair,” Borden says. “But they’re not really impregnated with that level of responsibility or functionality. They really are systems of color rationales, modular geometries, and type and variance within a system. But, I’m not offended if someone uses them as an end table. I’m okay with that as a thing. There’s something honest about the functionality of it.”
“There is a desire to eliminate the idea of the surface, but then get depth”
A Glimpse into Borden’s Sketchbooks
Watch
Gail checks in from his Houston studio to answer some questions about dimensional iterations
Acrylic and resin on panel.
18 x 36 in.
Exquisitely rigorous, and more than ever thoughtfully mixing the languages of two- and three-dimensionality, Dimensional Iterations highlights the work of an artist interested in bridging the principles of art and architecture. The works themselves act as a parallax, probing the most complex systems of dimension, color, and geometry. They also collaborate, forming families of parts and whole, like various parts of speech fitted into a complex grammar. Within them, Borden broaches the possibilities of entirely new ratios.
Moving through the field of objects in the gallery is a study in geometric systems, but also an experience that touches the hem of infinity, as Borden’s work asserts that within constraint lies a multiplicity of possibilities.
Gail Peter Borden attended Rice University, simultaneously receiving Bachelor of Arts degrees (all cum laude) in fine arts, art history, and architecture. He went on to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design to complete a post-professional Masters of Architecture with distinction. Borden is the Director of Graduate Studies in addition to holding a tenured position as a professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston and principal of Borden Partnership since 2002. His artwork is an integral component of a vibrant research based practice. His projects are dedicated to craft across a variety of scales and media. From books, to installations, furniture to paintings and exhibitions, his work continues to act as proof that art has the power to transform the everyday. Borden received artist-in-residence awards from the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas; the Atlantic Center for the Arts; the Borchard Fellowship; and the MacDowell Colony. Borden has published 7 books on materiality: Material Precedent: The Typology of Modern Tectonics, 2010 (Wiley Press); Matter: Material Processes in Architectural Production, 2011 (Routledge); Principia: Architectural Principles of Material Form, 2013 (Pearson); Process: Material and Representation in Architecture, 2014 (Routledge); Lineament: Material, Representation and the Physical Figure in Architecture, 2017 (Routledge); New Essentialism: Material Architecture, 2018 (AR+D), and City of Refugees, 2020 (AR+D) all focus on materiality. As an architect designer, artist, theoretician, and practitioner, Professor Borden’s research and practice focuses on the role of materiality and architecture in contemporary culture.
Oil stick on paper.
24x36 in.