Charles Rasmussen

Exhibitions

• READING ROOM - September 30, 2008

Statement

As a means to better understand the use and effects of color in my figurative work, I began in the mid-seventies to study the theories of Johannes Itten, Joseph Albers and others. The color exercises I was doing at the time eventually evolved into my main artistic objective.

Initially I was inspired by the work of artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, but in the early eighties while living in New York City I fell under the spell of a small group of abstract illusionists. Even though I considered the work of painters like Michael Gallagher, James Havard and George D. Greene to be a gimmicky genre and somewhat superficial I was also intrigued by their vitality and ingenuity and ultimately developed a very complex but convincing trompe l’oeil style of my own and did receive some minor acclaim for it.

But after a while I grew weary of constructing artificial paintings and decided to return to the brush, so to speak, as I rarely even use brushes at all these days. Today I am working at making paintings which are nearly devoid of artifice and boiled down to the basics with the goal of creating paintings that strikes the viewer as more of a felt experience than a contrived intellectual or technical achievement.

CV

EDUCATION
1970 – 1972 Mt. Angel College, Mt. Angel, OR
1972 – 1974 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1996 Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York, NY
1987 Zimmerman Saturn Gallery, Nashville, TN
1986 Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
Mathew Scott Gallery, Miami, FL
1980 ‘Fresh Paint’, Eugene, OR
1979 Open Gallery, Eugene, OR
Easton Gallery, Eugene, OR

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007 The Tiny Show, Whitney Art Works, Portland, ME
2006 Body Parts, Maine Center for Contemporary Arts, Rockland, ME
2005 Consider the Square, Shaw Gallery Northeast Harbor, ME
2004 Wingspread Gallery, Northeast Harbor, ME
2002 Lost and Found, Savage Gallery, Portland, OR
1999 Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Hall Barnett Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1992 Hall Barnett Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1990 Zimmerman Saturn Gallery, Nashville, TN
1989 Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR
Alan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
Zimmerman Saturn Gallery, Nashville, TN
1988 Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
New Talent, Alan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
1986 East Meets West, Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
1981 College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME
1980 Wingspread Gallery, Northeast Harbor, ME
1978 University of Oregon museum of Art, Eugene, OR

Selected Private/Corporate Collections
Gary Stevens, New Canaan, CT
Donna Karan, NY,NY
Cher Bono, NY,NY
CBS Executive Offices NY, NY