Complementary Color

karen scharer and Matthew langley

April 13th - May 11th, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13th, 2024, 4:00-6:00 pm

Artist Statements

Matt Langley: My focus on approaching this work is with openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconception of the final outcome. I have found new ways of working and discovered qualities about my work that were unknown to me. In this latest work, I have become far more sensitive to the idea of balance. These new paintings are heavily influenced by a project I started in 2015 where I would create a painting every day. The daily artworks, while both structured and extemporaneous provide a way to create without over-thinking while at the same time require a focus that ultimately allow the work to succeed. With these new artworks, I have become focused on a fluid approach to building up the image. I feel I have found a new space that allows my work to push forward as well as up and out while allowing an intimacy that allows the viewer to get inside the work, seeing both the finished artwork and the process that took it there. This idea of being able to see both the finished artwork as well as the history of its making has always been a major concern of my work.

Karen Scharer: Although my work is motivated by the desire to create something of beauty that authentically captures and communicates my response to the world around me, on its most basic level, it’s driven by the love of paint and color. My work is non-representational, relying on the elements of design – rather than a recognizable subject – to communicate and connect with the viewer. The elements of shape, line, contrast, texture, balance and movement all contribute to the overall success of my paintings. But color is arguably the most important design element in my work. Color choices evoke emotions and set the mood of a painting, allowing a visceral connection with the viewer. Beyond using color to set the overall tone of a painting, the use of complementary colors - colors which sit opposite each other on the color wheel (blue and orange, purple and yellow, red and green) – expands the opportunities to create impact in my work. Placing these colors together increases their intensity, creates dynamic visual contrast, and adds vibrancy and energy to my paintings.
Working non-objectively and intuitively allows me the freedom to paint for the sheer enjoyment of playing with color, and complementary colors appear in many of my most successful paintings.

Biographies

Matthew Langley studied at Virginia Commonwealth University and The Corcoran School of Art. While earning his BFA at Corcoran, he studied under luminaries such as Gene Davis, Robert Stackhouse, Tom Green, and other members of the Washington Color School and the D.C. artistic community. The use of space and color in his paintings demonstrate Langley’s mastery as a colorist and reveal a higher sense of order and harmony. Combining poetic titles and nonlinear visual narratives, with each work Langley creates a contemplative space that encourages the viewer to observe, consider, and reflect. Now based in Manhattan, Langley’s work continues to garner local and national attention. In 2016, Langley was chosen as an exhibiting artist for CONTEXT: Miami’s Art in Public Places. He also launched a Kickstarter campaign to published A Year in Painting, a book chronicling 365 small paintings from 2015.

Karen Scharer’s work reflects decades of art study with a wide range of artists, informed by diverse experiences from travel, a degree in natural resource management, and a 17-year career in technology. During her more than 35-year successful painting practice, Scharer’s work has transitioned from realism to abstraction, and from watercolor to acrylic to oil, a medium which has now completely captured her focus and passion. Scharer’s large, colorful abstract paintings have been featured in dozens of solo and group shows across the U.S. Her work has been honored with many awards, accepted into numerous juried exhibitions, and is included in hundreds of public, private, and corporate collections. Karen Scharer is based in Pueblo West, Colorado where her home and studio sit beneath dramatic skies just minutes from the beautiful Arkansas River, and a short drive from some of Colorado’s most spectacular mountain peaks. The stunning and varied Colorado landscape is a constant source of inspiration for her intuitive painting approach.