Richard Garrison: All-consuming

Richard Garrison
Circular Color Scheme: Target, May 22-28, 2016, Pages 1 & 1A. “Cute Combos/Picnic Pick-Ups,” 2016
Watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper, 12 x 12 in. Courtesy of the artist and Robert Henry Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY.

Running concurrently in the Eisenberg Gallery, ​Richard Garrison: All-consuming, looks at the ways color is used in advertising. The artist, who lives and works in the Albany suburb of Delmar, NY, collects information from typically overlooked aspects of daily life and transforms this data into chart-like abstractions. ​All-consuming ​features a series of the artist’s ​Circular Color Schemes—drawings derived from the ubiquitous “big box” store fliers circulated through the mail and in newspapers. For each drawing, Garrison calculates the size, color, and placement of the advertised items and represents them as individual wedges of color within a circular grid. An uneven sprawl of color emanates from the center of each drawing. By consistently repeating this format over the course of weeks and months, Garrison establishes a visual rhythm that uses color to mark time across the changing seasons.