For his long-awaited third solo show at moniquemeloche, Scott Stack presents three large-scale, optically challenging paintings made in painstakingly selected shades of grey. The new works are paintings of paintings of paintings that at one point referenced source material like film stills and historic photographic images, but the further they move away from the original reference, the more they become things in themselves that the viewer must decode. This new body of work, which does stem from Stack’s earlier “night vision” paintings, has an even stricter self-imposed code that continues Stack’s interest in what he can empty out of painting – like mark making, rendering, perspective, and even color. Yet somehow, without most of the visual clues we use to navigate our world, Stack painting’s still define and represent space – only to break it down again.
Scott Stack (b. 1952) lives in Oak Park, IL and received his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1976. He has had solo exhibitions at White Columns NY, Chicago Cultural Center, and Thomas Barry Fine Arts in Minneapolis. Selected group exhibitions include the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Drawing Center NY, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Hyde Park Art Center, and Gahlberg Gallery. Reviews of his work have appeared in Art in America, Art Papers, New Art Examiner, and Chicago Magazine. Stack has received numerous awards from such granting institutions as The Illinois State Arts Council, McNight Foundation and Jerome Foundation.
