Opening reception February 25 6–8PM
Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present There’s Always Tomorrow, a solo exhibition featuring paintings by Joe Goode from his Torn Cloud and Vandalism series (1967-76). The exhibition, on view February 25-May 1, 2015, is accompanied by a fully illustrated e-catalogue, including an essay by Charles Wylie available through our website.
First exhibited in Goode’s Vandalism Series show at Nicholas Wilder Gallery in Los Angeles (1974), the Vandalism paintings explore recurring imagery in both series and in the artist’s larger body of work:
"It seems every image I have used [...] has to do with seeing through something, whether it is glass, water, skies, fires, trees...everything. What I am doing (trying to do) is projecting a way of seeing, essentially the same way through a different avenue, through a different image, in a way you don't normally see."
Goode relies on the physical canvas beyond the two-dimensionality of the painted medium. Exploring the picture plane and depth of field through the violation of the work’s surface, Goode cuts and slashes through his compositions of expansive blue skies to expose the surface below, creating tension between each layer of canvas. His treatment reveals a dynamic avenue for the viewer to look into the work. With the subtle use of color and repetition of imagery, Goode’s series enhances the viewer’s experience of “seeing through” the canvas. Each work depicting the painterly illusions of the sky unites Goode’s conceptual exploration, the viewer’s perception, and the experience of being drawn beyond the work’s physical plane.
Joe Goode (Oklahoma City, 1937) is often identified with Southern California Pop Art. Goode moved to Los Angeles, CA in 1959 where he attended the Chouinard Art Institute along with his childhood friends Ed Ruscha and Jerry McMillan. In 1962 Goode’s work was included in the first Pop Art show in the United States, along with his contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Phillip Hefferton, Robert Dowd, Edward Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud. The groundbreaking exhibition, New Painting of Common Objects, was curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum (Norton Simon Museum). Goode’s work can be found in the collections of major museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Menil Collection, The Smithsonian Institution, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Joe Goode continues to live and work in Los Angeles.