Bernd Haussmann

Few artists have the courage to begin every work of art on a clean slate, with no preliminary plan whatsoever. Fewer still can do so and maintain total integrity. Bernd Haussmann faces the nothingness that is blank canvas, wood, metal, or other surfaces, and listens to his thoughts until a direction appears in his mind. Then he picks up his brush, and a subtle conversation begins. “As people get to know each other by talking,” he says, “I get to know the painting by painting it.” At a certain point, the dialog resolves itself and a work of art is revealed as a record of that process.

Haussmann builds up layers that hint at something beneath the surface. That something may be psychological, or may go even deeper and allude to eternal verities. Various forms appear, some positioned as color fields that organize the composition and some looped organically like recurring memories. Staccato blips underscore the electric chirr and crackle of contemporary consciousness that brings the work alive.

• Suzanne Deats

Information from venue's website