Unblocked represents a journey of rediscovering the creative process through pattern and color. Gautam Rao’s previous work was mostly figurative, but in 2011, this Butler University professor began to explore pattern. This marked the beginning of an exploration of color that has led to complex and unexpected destinations. Over the past two years, Rao has made large-scale paintings exploring color relationships, pattern, typography, and landscape. The paintings rely on a grid of color squares that allude to pixels of fabric patterns. The paintings play on the human tendency to recognize images in patterns everywhere – in the intervals of cracks on the sidewalk or images found in cloud formations.
Increasingly, mathematical patterns play a role in the structure of the paintings. Rao alternates colors in syncopated patterns, grouping them by hue, color temperature, and value. The patterns play to the joy found in color choices and the excitement of the creative process – of creativity rediscovered and unclocked.
Free
2013/09/06 - 2013/09/27