Distant Visions: John Woolsey
Zillman Art Museum/University of Maine, Bangor, ME • zam.umaine.edu • Through December 30, 2023
“My work explores the concepts of time, breakdown, reordering and renewal in the environment,” writes John Woolsey in the catalogue for his solo show at the Zillman. The artist, who travels between Philadelphia and the Maine coast, offers nearly seventy pieces in oil, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and woodcut—sometimes in layered and/or collaged combinations—that continue his dialogue with elements of the natural world, be it a forest floor, an estuary or a coral reef.
Woolsey traces this work, dating from 2018 to 2023, to drawings he made of ancient trees in temple gardens in Japan in 2010, in particular “root-scapes” formed by roots winding through moss. He transformed these and other sketches into sometimes dense compositions that might be called lyric abstractions, albeit with suggestions of the original subjects: leaves, plants, clouds, islands.
The complexity of pieces like the watercolors on woodcut Forest Floor #1 and Tondo #17 (Tide Pool #2) bring to mind the work of Alan Gussow and Emily Brown who found inspiration in similar subjects (including compost piles). Six vertical collages, a couple of them with jagged edges, underscore Woolsey’s sumptuous designs, edging into the decorative in the case of Spring Garden and Ripples.
Moving beyond the formal rectangle of earlier landscapes Woolsey explores a variety of engaging shapes, including fans, tondos, saw blades, a wave, and one he calls a “lazy S.” Arranged in groups on the museum walls, they form striking configurations.
Among the most recent work in the show is Reef, a stunning large (48 by 72 inches) oil. All manner of coral—brain, fan, finger—form a glowing underwater tapestry, unreal in its vivid coloration. Another 2023 oil, Delta, conjures the twisting arteries of water as seen perhaps from a satellite.
Woolsey is also showing at the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland. John Woolsey: Time and Transformation (through November 4) features similar work, plus a group of earlier, more realistic landscapes, including some lovely pastels and gouaches of blueberry barrens, coastal ledges, and glacial erratics. Together, these shows provide exciting evidence of Woolsey’s ever-evolving vision.
— Carl Little