Lisa Hamilton

by Jennifer Chapek

Transgressing the diverse complexity of the natural and fabricated landscape is a commonality shared throughout the contemporary world. The banality of the everyday is layered with elaborate infrastructures of technology and science, attempting to make sense of our complex existence. These structures are at once installed to provide order while actively altering our experiences.

In the paintings of Lisa Hamilton, fragments of reality, perceptions, thoughts and dreams weave in and out of the picture plane as exact lines, dizzying swirls, and quasi-representational images. The seemingly recognizable is dissected and interlaced with each other, creating platforms of experience. This confrontation takes place on sheets of wood, which is not disguised, creating places of tension and coupling with the paint. The grain of the wood functions as another element onto itself, generating delicate relationships with the vibrant colors used. The abstract interventions illuminate the disparate materials, and aid in their exploitation. The unconventional methods and mediums alter the modes and notions of the tradition of painting.

The concept of the wood “box” can be connected to ideas of Minimalism and of Donald Judd. The wood poses denser materiality than traditional canvas, creating a sculpture situation with a more meaningful presence, effectively engaging the space of the viewer. The layering of imagery and engagement of the picture plane can find resemblance to the artworks of Julie Mehretu.

Hamilton describes her paintings “as a response to the dense overlapping of systems that construct physical and psychological space.” Her specific experiences of unique cultures ultimately shape the interactions of the elements in her paintings, creating a lucid visual experience. The richness of imagery and use of materials construct spatial and mental expansions exposing the complexity of contemporary human experience.