Yellow and Grey Spot on White Vessel

Artist Gary Komarin first began working with the New York School under mentor Philip Guston. Through his work of drawing and painting, Komarin builds layered surfaces with water-based house paint, at times in a thinned-out sluice mixed with spackle and water. The paint offers hybrid colors that seem slightly “off” while the spackle creates a clean, matte surface.

In Cake Paintings, his 2012 exhibition at MARCH, Komarin took inspiration from his mother, a consummate baker, and his father, an architect, to cleverly explore the intersection of the domestic and the architectural. Water-based enamel and spackle paintings are rendered on paper bags where reoccurring cake iconography is combined with unusual media; a balance between sophistication and simplicity.

In The Vessel, his 2023 exhibition shown with the work of artist Karen Swami at MARCH, Komarin explores the “primitive forms of temporal defiance” finding inspiration in the myriad of vessels throughout his home and studio. Interested in the vessel as transporter for practical and ceremonial purpose, Komarin’s work surveys the shape of traditional vessels “of the most humble and demure variety,” he explains. “Painting vessels is a very plastic activity—it has allowed me a great deal of playful variation,” says the artist. “One never knows how they will wind up.”

SHOWS

Cake Paintings, September 27 - November 30, 2012

The Vessel, October 12 - November 16, 2023