NEW YORK—The Paula Cooper Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of work by David Novros. Six paintings dating from 1965 to 1969 will be shown, some of which have not been seen in public for over forty years. The exhibition will be on view from September 1 through October 3, 2009.

An original member of Park Place, the historic New York artist collective, Novros is well known for his large, abstract paintings on irregularly shaped, multipaneled canvases. With their sensuous and reflective surfaces created with multiple layers of sprayed-on acrylic pigment and glazed with Murano (a powdered pigment which is suspended in clear lacquer), Novros’ paintings provide the viewer with new types of perceptual and emotional experiences. He not only seeks to communicate content through monochromatic color, geometric form and complex spatial issues, but he also encourages a kinesthetic viewing experience through the surface’s response to changing light.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Novros often painted murals on his parents’ garage. Thus began the artist’s commitment to “painting as wall and on wall.” Influenced by a variety of art historical sources, including Native American pottery, Byzantine mosaics, Italian frescoes and the mural-scale paintings of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, Novros likens his work from this period to portable murals and aims to communicate the emotional power of geometric abstraction.

These breakthrough paintings from the initial stage in Novros’ career in turn influenced other artists as well, most notably Brice Marden and his panel paintings from the 70s. However, unlike other artists who utilize shaped canvases, Novros’ work emphasizes the critical meeting point of the canvas and wall, as if his paintings are extensions of the walls themselves.

David Novros was born in 1941 in Los Angeles and lives and works in New York City. Most recently, his work was included in a group exhibition entitled Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. Novros was also the subject of Contemporary Conversations: David Novros and The Menil Collection, a one-person show that was part of a series of exhibitions that celebrate living artists whose work is in the Menil’s permanent collection.

Novros has exhibited in several prominent venues, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art in Dallas, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Bremen Museum of Modern Art in Bremen, Germany.

For more information, please contact the gallery: (212) 255-1105 or
info@paulacoopergallery.com