Portal
Revelry Gallery is thrilled to welcome back Louisville artist Shae Goodlett for his 2nd solo show, Portal. Goodlett’s newest body of work examines the concept of portals, particularly ones found in everyday life. Utilizing elements of color, line and shape, Goodlett crafts a visual language that asks viewers to recognize their interaction with portals, and the intentions with which they pass through. Please join us for the opening on January 6th from 6-9 pm.
Mixed media artist and educator Shae Goodlett has become known for his immaculate cut-paper works, which feature vivid color palettes and compositions, paying homage to early minimalists such as Elsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, and Agnes Martin. In his latest body of work, Portal, Goodlett uses his aesthetic sensibility to explore the concept of portals both in the abstract and the everyday sense.
How people interact with and pass through portals is of particular interest to the artist, who states, “The use of these gateways are relative to the passengers who cross their threshold. Each passing possesses intention - transit, participation, performance, transformation.” While portals often present themselves as literal gateways, or openings one can pass through, they also appear in more abstract ways in our day-to-day life. “Books,” Goodlett writes, “can be a gateway to knowledge or entertainment; meditation and prayer offer the opportunity for physical, cognitive, and spiritual transformation (an altered state of ‘self’); the use of various social media platforms prompt performance, participation, and association with an alternative identity.”
Like his minimalist predecessors, Goodlett seeks not to create a pictorial window through which viewers can gaze, detached from the subject matter 4on the canvas. Rather, the artist’s compositions present abstract planes of flat color, line and shape which engage with viewers, encouraging one to draw closer into the work. In this way, Goodlett’s pieces can function as portals in and of themselves, as the artist states, “[viewers are] encouraged to engage with and pass through whichever gate they are called.”
