Gary Denmark

Sound defines space for our bodies. Without thinking we hear the information in sound and judge our position in space accordingly. In his improvisational paintings, Gary Denmark seems to listen to color in just this way. He follows an inner rhythm with his tools, placing colors and textures intuitively. Like a dancer following choreography, Denmark follows an inner sense of direction. "At some point I stop and observe the cacophony of rhythms I've put down and try to make sense of it. I always feel I’m building out an environment, a place to go into," he says. Denmark’s paintings often begin with shapes and colors inspired by an actual place. He divides his time between a studio in Santa Fe and one high on a mesa in Southern Utah; both sites have generated series of images. He painted Vulcano after visiting the island of the same name off the coast of Sicily. The work may begin with a shape or color reminiscent of a remembered place. With each new mark he drives the work closer to his sense of the "place" it could be. Some of the tools and processes that Denmark uses on his paintings — stencils, squeegees, and sponges — became familiar to him as a printmaker. Just as his extensive background in printmaking informed his approach to painting, the scale and improvisation of painting fed back into his prints. From his experiences in both media emerged his distinctive approach to building imagery in layers.These issues of control and surrender, of structure and dissolution, of existence and non-existence, have fundamental relevance to Denmark's life. He was pushed into confronting his own mortality as a person living with AIDS. "I had to hurry up and make sense of my life. Then, three years ago, my health improved and I realized that I was living to live, not living to die," he says. "It helped me look at why I make art. It’s the action that keeps me in place. The work is about documenting my process of doing what I’m doing."Gary has been actively exhibiting his work since 1976 and has had numerous Solo and Group shows around the country.  His work is included in the permanent collections of many prestigious Museum and Public collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Brooklyn Museum in NY, and the Achenbach Collection at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.