NEW YORK—The Paula Cooper Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Julian Lethbridge. The exhibition will be on view from March 5 through May 2, 2009 at 465 West 23rd Street. A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, March 6th from 6 – 8pm.

With this exhibition of new works, Julian Lethbridge continues his exploration of the rhythmic surfaces and optical depths of abstract painting. Beginning with seductive, luminous oil paints and pigment sticks, Lethbridge builds his compositions layer upon layer in an additive process that results in richly textured, complex images. Often a grooved grid or all-over textured paper provides the grounding layer, offering a stabilizing principle of organization over which the artist’s improvisational gestures take form. On top of his foundation, Lethbridge constructs undulating forms that may recall natural phenomena like a wave tumbling particles in a low tide or the rustle of wind.

These paintings investigate the possibilities of their materials, and thread a line of continuity between organic, improvisational gestures and an underlying stability. Lethbridge engages the physicality of his paintings and offers a kind of meditative looking, creating depth out of texture, playing lights and darks off of one another, and constructing a dynamic interplay between surface, space and depth.

Born in Sri Lanka and brought up primarily in England, Julian Lethbridge received his education at Winchester College and Cambridge University. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and Europe and can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), The Tate Gallery (London), The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), and The National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.). In 1988, Julian Lethbridge was awarded the Francis J. Greenberger Award.

For more information, please contact the gallery: (212) 255-1105 or
info@paulacoopergallery.com