Water Play / Debra Drexler Solo Exhibition
July 31 – August 18, 2018
Opening reception, Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Van Der Plas Gallery / 156 Orchard Street, New York / 212.227.8983
Debra Drexler’s large, abstract paintings are fluid, playful, and joyful. Closer examination reveals the work to be intricate and multifaceted. Numerous layers, which contrast areas of depth and flatness, organic and synthetic color, matte and gloss surfaces, create complex spatial interactions. In places, the bare canvas shines through providing stark contrast, while other zones of the painting are encased in over forty layers of paint. The edges of the mark tell the story of excavation, history and time. The luminosity and saturation also mirror the unique quality of light and tropical color interactions in Hawai‘i.
Drexler’s work has drawn recent praise from critics, Jonathan Goodman in a 2017 Whitehot Magazine review title “Galkyd, Galkyd” the Best of Today’s Abstraction describes Drexler’s work as “optimistic, even joyous” and states it “quite accurately describes the spirit of abstract art today, in which painting is struggling to break free of the constraints of time.” A 2017 review from Arte Fuse describes Drexler’s process as “pushing not only the limits of her material but also her body.” Debra Drexler maintains studios in both New York and O‘ahu where she is a University of Hawai‘i painting professor, and her work is informed by her unique bi-coastal experience. Drexler has had over 30 solo exhibits and over 100 group exhibitions at galleries and museums in New York, Hawai‘i, Australia, Berlin and across the states.