Barnaby Furnas | Tower of Song

Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present Tower of Song, a selection of new works by Philadelphia-based painter Barnaby Furnas (b. 1973; Philadelphia, PA). Set in the artist's studio, these paintings reflect the introspective turn in Furnas's ongoing examination of form, material, and the experiential nature of artistic production.

Throughout his practice, Furnas probes themes of human triumph and tragedy through ecstatic depictions of battle scenes, biblical tales, literary epics, and natural disasters in canvases that seem to vibrate with pure feeling. Renowned for his methodical investigation into the tools and materials of painting, Furnas pulls from a diverse cache of innovative painterly techniques—pouring, splashing, flooding, patterning, burning—to produce kaleidoscopic scenes that shatter with fragmented action and bursting emotion barely contained within their surfaces.  

With this newest body of work, Furnas has taken a deliberate turn inward. Combining his interests in historic figures and in flood painting techniques Furnas examines the role of the artist and the very act of painting. In each of the six new paintings on view—all set in a studio nominally based on the artist's own Philadelphia workshop—an artist stands before an easel, holding an array of brushes, their workbenches littered with paint palettes and potted plants and vases of flowers. The in-progress canvases on the artists' easels hint at the subject of the paintings—whispers of Georgia O'Keeffe and Helen Frankenthaler make their way into some while others make reference to Furnas's early monochrome flood paintings.

These new paintings are replete with Furnas's signature gestural brushwork, rich colors, and tangible dynamism; yet, they represent a marked shift in the 50-year-old painter's practice. In recent years, Furnas has returned to Philadelphia, where he reengaged with the museum collections in his hometown. With Tower of Song, Furnas turns to the process of painting, becoming witness to the act of making and reveling in the freedom and drama of creation itself.

ABOUT BARNABY FURNAS

Furnas's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO; and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom. His work was featured in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ; the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN; the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY; the Kasama Nichido Museum, Ibaraki, Japan; the National Arts Club, New York, NY; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL, among others. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, amongst others. Furnas earned an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. The artist lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.