Near Heat presents the recent work of two abstract oil painters and friends, John Burt Sanders and Liz Rudnick. Sanders and Rudnick have been discussing and engaging with each other’s work since 2014. Near Heat,
presented by The Union Hall, represents their first large-scale collaboration. The title references activation and the anticipation of a transfer of energy.
The harmony between Sanders’ and Rudnick’s work begins with their shared strategy of layering the immediate over the infinite — both artists play the foreground of their surfaces against the boundless depth of the picture plane. The result is the optical push-pull of flotsam floating on a surface in virtual levitation. Both painters are also serious about color theory and engage a vast chromatic range.
Where Rudnick and Sanders contrast is in their level of improvisation. Sanders is diagramming the cosmos, carving defined pathways into atmospheric territories. He is writing a playbook and experimenting within a set of gradually expanding parameters. As a result, his paintings have a shared geometry, a succinct and particular vocabulary. Meanwhile, Rudnick is creating aqueous vortexes, visualizing emotional weather-patterns. Her paintings rely on layers of gestural action and reaction, addition and erasure. Often working on the floor, Rudnick is dancing as much as painting, and the work reflects this physicality.
Near Heat is on view through April 2nd at The Union Hall, 2216 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15222
