August 7, 2013 – Portland, OR: Adams and Ollman is pleased to present a three-person exhibition of works by Acharya Vyakul, Chris Johanson, and Chris Corales. The works on view convey meditative qualities in art and the art-making process. Each work is immediate, succinct and intuitive.

 

Rooted in the traditional ritual art of India and made as meditative tools, Acharya Vyakul’s tantric paintings were created whenever and wherever the spirit seized him. The paintings’ yantras, or visual instruments akin to verbal mantras, use color, shape and repetition to help the viewer achieve a state of enlightenment. 

 

Like Vyakul who made marks with whatever was at hand such as coffee, leaves, or coal, Chris Johanson employs various media in a practice that the artist describes as “selfish expressionism", a term emphasizing that he is creating from his unique perspective. At Adams and Ollman, Johanson will exhibit paintings that feature carefully composed bits of text that can be understood as speech or thought and are, by turns, humorous, bittersweet, and neutral. 

 

Chris Corales' minimal works on found paper investigate the essence of color and form. Like the patinaed paper of Vyakul’s works, Corales uses record sleeves from old 78s and other found vintage paper that bare the markings of past lives and uses. Each fade, tear, mark and shape informs the artist’s decisions as he transforms these ordinary materials into collages that are meditations on landscape and time.  

 

Acharya Vyakul (1930-2000) lived and worked in Jaipur, India. His work was first exhibited in 1989 in the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre organized by Jean-Hubert Martin and presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grand Halle at the Parc de la Villette.  

 

Chris Johanson was born in 1968 and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR. A solo presentation of his work is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA and a monograph on his work was published this year by Phaidon. Johanson has also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; SFMOMA, San Francisco; UCLA Hammer Museum, LA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Deste Foundation, Athens; and MOMA, New Museum, and Whitney Biennial, all in New York.

 

Chris Corales was born in 1969 and lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. His work has been exhibited at Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, CA; New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA; and Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia, PA and is currently on view in the traveling exhibition, Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center.