Frank Galuszka at the New York Studio School

MICA
By Christina Waters

Frank Galuszka Under The Ice 2003
oil, acrylic and Mica on panel, 64 x 20 inches

Inside the Looking Glass
Viewed across time, the work of painter Frank Galuszka is as much philosophical inquiry as artistic practice. Each piece participates in a metaphysics of discovery, in which the real is momentarily stabilized by the imagination. But only momentarily.

Embracing the constructivist insight that reality is a dialogue between perceiver and perceived, Galuszka’s work instantiates the holographic model of the universe suggested by physicist David Bohm. In this view, all possible moments of time and space exist simultaneously, interpenetrating the now with the then and the yet-to-be. Just so, the paintings embody a universe they themselves are in the process of constructing.

The mica works made in the summer of 1999 arose as an organic whole. Pinned to the studio walls, four or five at a time, large canvases were gessoed, scumbled, scraped and splashed with layers of paint. Galuszka would begin an idea on one surface and continue it to the others, augmenting and refining it as he worked. As each generation neared completion, the canvases would be taken down and mounted on stretchers. New expanses of canvas would then be tacked to the wall, and the process continued until a dozen completed works had emerged. And the summer had ended.

Ontology of Surprise
The encrusted surfaces of Galuszka's large abstract paintings exert the allure of objects both familiar and mysterious. Mica, like glass or water, offers a reflective surface which is also a transparent membrane. Composed of natural muscovite sliced into crystalline leaves, each work is made by painstakingly placing mica shapes into a painted surface coated with gel medium, the slices of mineral have been physically altered before colonizing the surface with a cellular bloom. The mica paintings manage to question the basic taxonomy of the physical world. Are they biological or are they mineral? To which the answer is a single "yes."

Virtually all of his major works articulate inter-domain metaphysics, from delicate figurative paintings to highly gestural abstractions. Figures painted from life often occupy a single canvas alongside fantasy saints, demons and hypnotically recurring patterns of mica and acrylic. The worlds of imagination and perception co-exist — just as multiple styles and materials meet in single works — setting up a vibrational field among impossible energies.

Appearing to break with stylistic consistency, Galuszka's self-referential body of work expresses a single transformative vision in a multiplicity of disguises. In Parmenidean fashion the artist packs the Many into the One, and unpacks them again. Galuszka’s mica-mirrored texts may be interpreted and re-interpreted — the works themselves yield to the eye with a profound candor. No analysis is required to succumb to their beauty. Serene as the ether in deepest space, the Deathstar series embodies the artist’s on-going gaze through the looking glass.

Frank Galuszka: Paintings February 9 to March 26 , 2006

	Welcome Checklist View images Texts, by Christina Waters - "Mica" - "Paintings of the Pacific Coast" Texts, by Frank Galuszka - "Voices" - "The Snow Queen" about the New York Studio School about the Gallery Program	MICA By Christina Waters Frank Galuszka Under The Ice 2003 oil, acrylic and Mica on panel, 64 x 20 inches Inside the Looking Glass Viewed across time, the work of painter Frank Galuszka is as much philosophical inquiry as artistic practice. Each piece participates in a metaphysics of discovery, in which the real is momentarily stabilized by the imagination. But only momentarily. Embracing the constructivist insight that reality is a dialogue between perceiver and perceived, Galuszka’s work instantiates the holographic model of the universe suggested by physicist David Bohm. In this view, all possible moments of time and space exist simultaneously, interpenetrating the now with the then and the yet-to-be. Just so, the paintings embody a universe they themselves are in the process of constructing. The mica works made in the summer of 1999 arose as an organic whole. Pinned to the studio walls, four or five at a time, large canvases were gessoed, scumbled, scraped and splashed with layers of paint. Galuszka would begin an idea on one surface and continue it to the others, augmenting and refining it as he worked. As each generation neared completion, the canvases would be taken down and mounted on stretchers. New expanses of canvas would then be tacked to the wall, and the process continued until a dozen completed works had emerged. And the summer had ended. Ontology of Surprise The encrusted surfaces of Galuszka's large abstract paintings exert the allure of objects both familiar and mysterious. Mica, like glass or water, offers a reflective surface which is also a transparent membrane. Composed of natural muscovite sliced into crystalline leaves, each work is made by painstakingly placing mica shapes into a painted surface coated with gel medium, the slices of mineral have been physically altered before colonizing the surface with a cellular bloom. The mica paintings manage to question the basic taxonomy of the physical world. Are they biological or are they mineral? To which the answer is a single "yes." Virtually all of his major works articulate inter-domain metaphysics, from delicate figurative paintings to highly gestural abstractions. Figures painted from life often occupy a single canvas alongside fantasy saints, demons and hypnotically recurring patterns of mica and acrylic. The worlds of imagination and perception co-exist — just as multiple styles and materials meet in single works — setting up a vibrational field among impossible energies. Appearing to break with stylistic consistency, Galuszka's self-referential body of work expresses a single transformative vision in a multiplicity of disguises. In Parmenidean fashion the artist packs the Many into the One, and unpacks them again. Galuszka’s mica-mirrored texts may be interpreted and re-interpreted — the works themselves yield to the eye with a profound candor. No analysis is required to succumb to their beauty. Serene as the ether in deepest space, the Deathstar series embodies the artist’s on-going gaze through the looking glass.