This exhibition is comprised of abstract paintings made within the past year, along with a couple of studio oddities. Aggregations refers to the way the paintings develop compositionally-- as clusters of parts and moments that coalesce in space. Wolniak's paintings are built through layers of abstract drawing, additive textures, color staining, and rhythmic mark-making. Each piece begins with quickly drawn sequences of shapes in graphite on raw canvas, which follow imprecise geometric structures such as rows, concentric circles or spirals. This system is procedural and exploratory, resulting in atmospheric spaces and idiosyncratic patterns that are loosely based on motifs of the natural world, as well as tropes of consciousness. Wolniak describes his paintings as akin to visual music, in which the initial layers function as a "rhythm section," holding time and providing order for fluid movements to occur closer to the surface. Every painting evolves in its own way, with the underlying goal of producing immersive energy fields. They invite slow looking, rewarding the viewer as they unfold over time.
Scott Wolniak has exhibited extensively throughout the US. His work has been written about in publications including ArtForum, Art in America and the Chicago Tribune, and is part of numerous permanent collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee. Wolniak received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002. He is an Instructional Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago and is represented by Goldfinch Gallery.
