Billis Williams Gallery is pleased to present MICAH CRANDALL-BEAR: RECENT PAINTINGS, the gallery’s second solo exhibition by the Northern California-based painter. The exhibition features the artist’s recent landscape inspired abstractions and continues through May 3rd.
Micah Crandall-Bear’s abstract landscape paintings examine the enigmatic dance between light and shadow in the natural world. Linear layers cascade from atmospheric to subterranean, mirroring the complexities of human experience. Panoramic details hint at daily and seasonal shifts in light, evoking a sense of evolution and balance.
The paintings are nuanced and compelling – Crandall-Bear builds layer upon layer of texture and color with a balance and refinement that is meditative and transfixing. While referencing a horizon line, sunset sky, or landscape/seascape, the paintings shine in their abstraction and ‘more-than’ color palette. While rooted in the natural world, Crandall-Bear is pushing the saturation and range of colors he can coax from his palette while still creating compositions that read as landscapes. The subtle tonal changes and mark-making unify these linear compositions. Intriguing from far away and intense upon close inspection, the paintings seem to glow with an internal light. Through the interplay of vibrant hues and muted tones, Crandall-Bear’s canvases are often an introspective reminder of the delicate balance between melancholy and joy.
MICAH CRANDALL-BEAR (b. 1980) is represented by galleries in the United States, Asia, and Europe and his work is in permanent collections including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Resnick Foundation, and the Crocker Art Museum, and as well as numerous private collections around the world. He recently completed a large-scale painting at Google’s Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, CA as well as a large mural at Warner Media in Culver City, CA. Crandall-Bear lives and works in Sacramento, California.
