This fifth installation in the Wilcox Space opening on November 4, 2016 focuses on selected works of John Wilcox that convey his attraction to and work with the tension between the part and the whole, the finite and the infinite, time and timelessness. Wilcox experiments in finding new ways to work with his medium, whether with countless miniscule brush strokes or the precise application of paint he referred to as ‘pointillist impasto’. What emerges is a complex body of work, which contemplates questions of mortality and immortality, perfection and imperfection, and the temporal and the eternal. Wilcox’s own words provide the best introduction to these works.

With my painting, I am attempting to create a pictorial space which somehow captures an infinitely dense complexity which might serve as a metaphor for life. Repetitive and meditative brush strokes or layering of paint expresses a relinquishment of time, hopefully effecting an active serenity. Images relating to certain religious motifs as well as images of life and death and consequent emotions bear witness to an aspiration of eternal themes. The simplified, somewhat naïve forms give rise to a primitive sensibility while the vertical/horizontal and diagonal grid patterns speak of an essential universality as well as obscuring or protective screens. The attempt towards perfection and the handmade imperfections of the painting try to impart a sense of the soul’s patient endurance.  

                                                                                 –  John Wilcox, June 16, 2001