Spatial Soother  Jigger Cruz  July 19 - August 6, 2012  Gallery
1  In Spatial Soother, Jigger Cruz’s latest one-man show at West
Gallery, his attention is drawn toward the interlocking of
different sides of traditional perspectives, focusing on the
contrast between immaterial appearance and apparently tangible
materiality, and dramatizing negative space through shapes and
extreme contrasts. Continues Cruz, “These series of new works
challenge the typical connotations of what painting is, or could
be, with the absence of meaning itself: Paintings often appear
as objects rather than images.” He squeezes out images from what
gestures are capable of communicating by pushing these pieces
into unfamiliar territory and pulling further from [artistic]
tradition. Cruz describes his new works as more dynamic and
aggressive than what he has done in the past, letting different
shapes, textures, colors, and dynamic surfaces dictate the tone.
The title piece, “Spatial Soother,” for example, has been
cropped to bring out th