Every painter since Caravaggio has contended with conveying the effects of light. Over the centuries, many have mastered the colors of candlelit gloom, sunrise and bright summer days. Until recent decades, however, no one had experienced light as the seductive glow of a screen.
Brooklyn painter Nate Ethier presents luminous abstract works that speak to that quality of light in “Lanterns,” on view through May 16 at Hexum Gallery in Montpelier. Using grids, circles and other geometric forms, Ethier creates sometimes dizzyingly complex images in which bright shapes seem to float in front of dim ones.
The paintings recall metal lanterns whose punched holes create stars or flowers in the darkness. But more than that, they call to mind a smartphone’s dimmed-out backgrounds, still visible when a bright pop-up is trying to get our attention.
At first glance, Ethier’s paintings look similar to ones from the op art movement of the 1960s — works that played with color and geometry to make optical illusions and explore color theory. But, especially when seen in person, these works are much more painterly, with visible brushstrokes and a gentle human touch.
Ethier builds his paintings in transparent layers, which are most visible in the smallest pieces in the show: three 12-by-12-inch watercolor works on paper. Since watercolor inherently involves transparent layering, these smaller studies’ luminosity makes immediate sense, whereas a similar approach in the acrylic paintings on canvas risks breaking the viewer’s brain.
That feeling comes up again and again, especially when one views works such as “Treasure Map,” which, in a conversation during the show’s opening, Ethier said he created to challenge his sense of composition with an “all-over” painting. With many of his more centralized works, the eye knows where to start, but here it gets lost in a maze of curves, squares and rectangles that vibrate against one another. Depth becomes apparent once you start looking, but you don’t know if you’re coming or going, falling in or bouncing out.
Though just staring at Ethier’s work is fun, his clear sense of inspiration sets it apart from pictures whose goal is to be trippy. While Ethier now works in Brooklyn, he studied at Plainfield’s Goddard College and said he regularly spends time in nature. He draws on that world, referencing murmurations of birds and light through dappled leaves.
In a photo essay for the online magazine Two Coats of Paint, Ethier presented a work in which pink arcs cluster in a circle, hovering over a grid of red and green squares. Beside it, he placed a reference photo of the sun shining through the branches of an evergreen. The resemblance is clear: In the photo, darkness is punctuated by blurred arcs of sunshine, made even brighter by the backlit screen. It’s a strange wonder that an opaque painting seems to glow with both kinds of light.