Karan Ruhlen Gallery kicks off the 2015 art season with an exhibition featuring New Mexico abstract painter Kevin Tolman and California sculptor Bret Price. Their abstract work uses a visual language of form, color and line.

Albuquerque artist Kevin Tolman identifies with the principles and techniques of Modern Abstraction, but also relishes the certain ambiguity. He continues to produce inspiring, epic and intimate works. Some appear to be amplified organic forms, while others are cadenced arrangements of linear and geometric shapes. He builds rich mixed-media abstract surfaces with gestural layers of vibrant acrylic that he applies scratching, scraping and drawing along the way. Tolman?s most recent visual influence was stimulated during an extended stay in Portugal that included an artist residency at the Foundation OBRAS. For Tolman, Portugal is very much about patterns and natural surroundings with a distinct layering of the deep historical past everywhere one looks.

Since 1979, Bret Price has built heating chambers around large pieces of steel, applying intense heat to manipulate metal to create a sense of softness. ?The variables of intense heat, size and shape of the raw material produce a wide range of results; from the quiet simplicity of a single pipe bend to the rhythmic complexity that emerges from folding a section of structural steel. ?A degree of unpredictability is always present, which tends to tease one?s curiosity and lend energy,? says Price. The show will feature Price?s recent series of work composed of bands of stainless steel joined together in unexpected ways. The shaped rings and bands are welded together to form elegant abstraction in brilliant colors.  

Kevin Tolman and Bret Price
Recent Works: Abstractions of Color and Line
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Kevin Tolman, "Frutas Do Alentejo / Sementes Do Alentejo"
60 x 48" each, acrylic, mixed media, collage on canvas

Bret Price, "Cause and Effect"
93 x 32 x 10" (42" sculpture height), stainless steel

Kevin Tolman, "Miradouro"
54 x 42" acrylic, mixed media, collage on canvas

Bret Price, "Masquerade"
16 x 9 x 3" painted steel

Kevin Tolman, "Topsy Turvy / Seed Time"
72 x 72" acrylic, mixed media on canvas

Bret Price, "Masquerade"
10 x 12 x 3" painted steel

Kevin Tolman, "Night Zig Zag / Zuni"
60 x 60" acrylic, mixed media on canvas

Bret Price, "More Than Enough"
16.5 x 13.5 x 7", painted steel

2015 Exhibitions

August 21 The Nature of Color: Group Exhibition

Sept. 11 Conversations on Abstraction
Martha Rea Baker ? Mary Long ? Daniel Phill

Oct. 16 The Landscape: Classical to Modern
Martha Mans ? Kurt Meer ? Stephen Pentak
Pauline Ziegen

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