Feature Articles


September Issue 2001

Center of the Earth Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Features Exhibition by Jacob Cooley and Thomas Paquette

The Center of the Earth Gallery in Charlotte, NC, is pleased to present the exhibition The Great Land EsCape: Jacob Cooley and Thomas Paquette. The exhibition opens Sept. 7 and continues through Oct. 27, 2001.

Jacob Cooley and Thomas Paquette are two impressive young artists who closely follow the legacy of some formidable painters in the history of western landscape painting. Like their predecessors, both artists use this academic subject matter to reflect the philosophy and psychology of their time in strikingly new ways. There are several points of intersections between the history of landscape painting and the work of Cooley and Paquette. In the 19th century, European artists of Romantic landscape painting, such as Casper David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner, and John Constable were known for their dynamic depictions of awe inspiring nature as a living presence.

At the turn of the century, the Impressionists experimented with new perceptions of the quality of light and how non-naturalistic color affected the mood of a scene. In the US, landscape painting has been most closely connected with the Hudson River School, active from 1825-1870. The Hudson River artists, initially led by Thomas Cole, were known for creating panoramic compositions that promoted the message of the virtue of nature. In Cooley's work, visual connections can be made with 19th century Romantic landscape paintings with their lush scenes and strongly captured mood. Cooley accomplishes this by the play of atmospheric light and the seductive lush density of sculptural vegetation.

Reference to the provocative vistas of the Hudson River School can be made along with Paquette's explorations of timeless majestic scenery. He couples this with a Post-Impressionist play of unexpected and highly saturated color and energetic texture. A nuance of urban interruption including paved roads and street signs dramatizes the impact and places them in a contemporary framework. Both artists record familiar landscape settings, yet reinvent them into remarkable and inviting places for solace and contemplation. Cooley and Paquette both share truly signature style approaches that elevate them into the pantheon of the great landscape artists in western art history.

Cooley, heralded as one of North Carolina's young, rising stars, captures the sublime mysterious beauty of the North Carolina landscape through the use of an almost revelatory light. A hazy and diffused atmosphere is mysteriously suggesting both dusk and dawn alike. He says of the work, "This imagery is loaded with recollection. It is the storehouse of my memory and identity, my sense of place. These spaces speak to me about growing up - watching blurred, barely illuminated, overgrown landscapes rush by the windows of a traveling car. Colors and shapes are fleeting, intensely saturated form. They are about that energy." Cooley has taken these familiar, fleeting scenes to create spellbinding paintings that are as relaxing as they are contemplative.

Jacob Cooley received an MFA in painting from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993 and his BFA from University of Georgia, Athens. His work has been included in numerous corporate and private collections including Duke University Museum of Art, the Ackland Art Museum, SAS Institute, and Burroughs Welcome Foundation.

Thomas Paquette, a long-time supporter of land preservation, has served as artist-in-residence at Yosemite, Acadia, and Rocky Mountain National Parks. He regularly contributes paintings to assist the efforts of The Nature Conservancy; a privately operated international organization dedicated to the protection of the environment and wildlife. He has been featured most recently in a one-man exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art with a selection of paintings inspired from his travels in Greece, France, the British Isles, and the United States. He paints landscapes "for visual exploration, provided by nature." Paquette has traveled widely in the US and Europe, preparing sketches or small renderings at the site, and then preparing his paintings in the studio. He is admired for his dynamic and complex use of color and richly textured paintings, which can be seen in many collections.

A visiting artist to the American Academy in Rome, Paquette's work has been exhibited all over the East Coast of the US and has received critical acclaim in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere. His work can be seen in numerous public art commissions as well as Smith Barney, the US State Department, Arthur Andersen, L.L. Bean and many others.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 704-375-5756 or on the web at (http://www.centeroftheearth.com).

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