EXHIBITION DATES
January 14 to March 8, 2021 

NANCY TOOMEY FINE ART
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
Tues-Fri 11am-5:30pm, Sat 11am-5pm
By appointment only, please contact:
nancy@nancytoomeyfineart.com 415-307-9038

VIRTUAL TOUR

Nancy Toomey Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Casper Brindle titled Recent Work, on view from January 14 to March 8, 2021. The gallery is located inside San Francisco’s Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street. The public is invited to visit the gallery by appointment–please contact nancy@nancytoomeyfineart.com or 415-307-9038.

Casper Brindle, Hieroglyph 0001, 2020
Acrylic paint with silver and pale gold leaf on linen, 96 x 72 inches

Los Angeles based artist Casper Brindle continues his pursuit of the expressive possibilities of light and tone in his Recent Work exhibition. Known for high gloss resin surfaces achieved through layers of airbrushed automotive paint, Brindle’s current body of work embraces mediums that push pure color to new extremes. These iterations in linen, the Portal-Glyphs, are expanded in scale and complexity; monumental canvases covered in fields of lush color. Working within the constraints of unyielding ninety-degree angles, he applies his materials with a Fauvist abandon, creating works with an otherworldly presence. Recurrent in his work is the cryptic central form, here appearing as metal foil bars enshrouded in gradients of color. This form draws the viewer deeper into the illusory depths of the canvas, creating a point to which one can anchor and pause for a moment during the dizzying passing of time.

Casper Brindle Recent Work exhibition view at Nancy Toomey Fine Art, 2021
A most ancient form of communication, a glyph is a symbol or mark carved in relief to convey ideas without words. Transformative and mysterious, Casper Brindle’s newest series, the Glyphs, continues his investigation into the expressive possibilities of color and form while utilizing new materials and modes of production. These enigmatic pieces tend more toward sculptural object than painting, each a single sheet of shimmering metallic color encased in a transparent shell, punctuated only by a radiant central form. These central forms seem to be emerging from the void, single origin points that simultaneously appear to be moving through space and frozen in time. A glowing push and pull ensues as the viewer circles the piece, the object before them shifting before their eyes. Meant to be experienced, they cause the viewer to question what they are seeing while they are looking.
Casper Brindle, Glyph 2 007, 2020, pigmented acrylic, 36 x 35.5 inches
This reductive imagery is powerful in its simplicity. The slim bar of neon color that cuts through the picture plane invites a quiet reverence, as form seems to materialize from the abyss, in an act of technicolor alchemy. Lucio Fontana’s powerful slashed canvases come to mind when viewing these works, in which form energetically cuts through space in an attempt to create a new dimension. Brindle’s work follows this trajectory, breaking from the traditional confines of paint and canvas, presenting the viewer with evocative imagery that alludes to something beyond the limits of our understanding.
Casper Brindle, Glyph 2 009 and 008, 2020, pigmented acrylic, 48 x 24 inches each
Casper Brindle, photo by Juan Sanchez
Casper Brindle, based in Los Angeles, specializes in mixed media abstraction, Light and Space, and Finish Fetish. Born in Toronto, Canada, shortly after his parents emigrated there from England, the family moved to Los Angeles in 1974. Brindle’s life spent between the beaches and alleys of LA’s Westside during the 1970s and 80s is reflected in his use of color, material choices, and visual vocabulary. He worked for Light and Space artist Eric Orr in the late 1980s, and the movement, as well as the landscape from which it arose, has effected the artist’s own production. Brindle’s art has been exhibited widely in the United States and Europe, and written about in, among others, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Art in America. His work has been exhibited at institutions across the US and internationally, and is held in a number of prominent private and museum collections including Morningside College Collection in Sioux City, Iowa, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.