“You see and feel the energy in Gale’s dynamic abstract paintings. She’s a painter’s painter, expressing herself through stroke, color and movement. ”
“I have been an artist my entire life. After so many years, I am still in love with painting. It beguiles me. I am intrigued with a blank canvas and fascinated with paint. Moving paint around to make a language…this is the most important part of my painting; the rest is all about color, perspective, size, and composition. I have been schooled with the formal elements and sometimes they work successfully and sometimes they do not. The essence of my paintings I really cannot define. It is almost like meditation because the world can drop away and I can invent my own.” — DG
Denise Gale was born and raised in St.Louis, Mo. In 1967 she moved to Los Angeles and attended Valley Community College and then California State College Northridge, where she studied with Fidel Danieli and Peter Plagens.
After graduating she moved into a loft in downtown Pasadena, where she became part of a tight knit art community. She had her first show at age 26.
Gale has exhibited widely across the country. Solo shows include Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY; The Painting Center and the Mercer Gallery, New York, NY; the Janus Gallery, Newspace Gallery and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. She has show in group shows at the Penine Hart Gallery and Mokotoff Gallery, New York, NY; Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago; The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA: and the Carol Shapiro Gallery, St. Louis, MO, among others.
Denise Gale by Jaime Lopez
ARTIST'S CAROUSEL
rotating exhibit of current & recently sold work
PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW
DENISE GALE talks to folioeast’s COCO MYERS
CM/ WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE EAST END?
DG/ I came to the east end because of a strong desire to live near nature. Since college, I’d always lived in lofts and in cities. I wanted to be around trees and open sky and the ocean. How lucky to be here—and I never take it for granted. One of the most beautiful experiences is to hear and see the geese in their formations going south for the winter.
CM/ YOUR PAINTINGS ARE SO EXPRESSIVE AND GESTURAL. DO YOU AGREE?
DG/ Gestural strokes and movement are a language. I am creating a world, communicating with with color, paint, and texture. It is my world and I am showing a part of me that is very deep inside.
CM/ WHAT INSPIRES YOU ABOUT ABSTRACT PAINTING?
DG/ I really think that I have had a genetic predisposition towards abstract painting. My parents took me to Washington University Art Gallery when I was young, and that is where I saw my first Willem De Kooning painting. I got it , I was smitten and I knew I had to make art like that. Another influence was when I saw the Jackson Pollock painting on the cover of Life Magazine. I was young but these experiences spoke to me.
CM/CAN YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS? HOW YOU BEGIN A PAINTING?
DG/ I begin paintings with a wash of color and then I layer over and over. My paintings have gotten more baroque with lots and lots of stuff. Drawing, splashing and dripping—all of these are ways to make discord and somehow this lack of harmony makes harmony for me.
CM/ WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT PAINTING ON A LARGE SCALE? AND ON A SMALLER SCALE?
DG/ Working on a large scale is like the sublime and largess of the Hudson River Painter—my body in space dancing with a paint brush. Smaller work is immediate and I feel like the artist hovering over the paper or canvas on a table.
CM/ WHERE DO YOU DO YOUR WORK?
DG/ In a converted garage with sliding glass doors that look out at my garden. I think the intimacy with the seasons and the earth enhance my ability to paint in a very profound way.
CM/ DO YOU HAVE ANY WORKS BY EAST END ARTISTS IN YOUR HOME?
DG/ I have work by Claire Watson, Christa Maiwald, Sue Heatly, Don Christianson, Barry McCullum and Eric Brown.