Gerald
Hopkins: Paintings
The Woodstock Connection
by Susan Hoover
This one-man show, consisting of 34 paintings,
opened at the spacious and tasteful Shelley K. Gallery in
Saugerties on December 15. Due to the very positive response
it has received, it will be extended until February 16, 2008.
Gerald Hopkins lives and works in both Woodstock and New
York City. His work has been exhibited in NYC galleries, and
additionally, is included in several large private collections
throughout the country.
From the moment one enters the gallery, one is mesmerized
by the sheer allure of color—singularly and in combination.
The mixes are exquisite, the relationships seductive and dazzling—there,
on both side walls, beckoning next, a deeper look—the
hint of substance through the initial wow of painterly technique
and abstraction. Hopkins is in charge here—his acrylic
colors demand attention, then command a deeper look at the
form or the idea beckoning under the masterful handling of
technique. The balance struck, helped greatly by each painting’s
title, is complex but there for the unfolding. One of my favorites,
for example, and more immediately accessible, is called Galactic
Birds II—the title informing what our eyes might perceive
initially as a complete abstraction, a swirl of exquisitely
compatible shades of greens, aquas, pinks, and oranges on
a dark blue background, that, with continued focus, morphs
into (if you allow the title to inform your curiosity) two
galactic birds in flight through a speckled sky.
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