Gary Lang: Concentric Squares – McClain Gallery’s Online Exhibition

By Virginia Billeaud Anderson

McClain Gallery is offering a respite from all the noisy political sputtering. How courageous!

On July 9, McClain Gallery opened an online exhibition of colorful square paintings by California-based artist Gary Lang (b.1950.) Concentric Squares is a pleasurable visual experience. Lang’s lavishly colored geometric abstraction can be viewed online at www.mcclaingallery.com through August 29, 2020.

Lang drinks from the same trough as Matisse, who said he chose beautiful colors to stir the sensual depths in men.

It was while viewing the stained glass windows in Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, the artist stated in Eric Minh Swenson’s video, that he came to understand the meditative effect of color. According to Lang, the chapel’s glittery glass from the 1240s caused him to literally fall to his knees and weep. In the same manner that the Gothic architects sought to lift the consciousness to heavenly realms, Lang aims to transport the viewer. He called his squares a contemplative tool.

Authenticity is alluring. Look closely at Lang’s uneven paint application, which is visible in both textural variation and smudged overlapping edges. These barely detectable imperfections bring home the intimate act of touching brush to surface.

The Los Angeles Times described Lang’s colors as “shrill and sexy.”

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