Roberts & Tilton is pleased to present Evan Nesbit, /ˈkaɪˑæzəm/ in the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. /ˈkaɪˑæzəm/ features a new body of work exploring the physicality of vision and visceral systems within painting.

Nesbit incorporates striking colors, vivid textures, and volume to create paintings that elicit an experience reaching beyond the confines of what is seen, to summon what is perceived. The results provoke the viewer to engage in an active participatory role, as the gaze conflates the static physicality of the canvas with the natural saccadic movement of vision. Highly influenced by phenomenological philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty; Nesbit harnesses philosophical

investigations of human perception to address issues within image making in an effort to not only exist as an object, or momentous glance, but as an invitation for a suspended visceral exchange.

Through the manipulation of acrylic paint and fibers, Nesbit creates textured surfaces that challenge traditional substrates of painting. The warp and weft of burlap, linen and wool textiles furrowed into textured paint surfaces capture a kind of performative gesture in the making of each piece. This process spurs a similarity to that of monotype printmaking. The unique folds, weight, and textures rendered in low relief converge the concerns of rendering space and depth through illusionistic visual cues. The fibers produce a sense of a posterior view of the painting, as if it were constructed backwards; dignifying basal gestures.

In the exhibition, each painting presents a discreet allure activated by the visual fusion of reductive pattern and color bound by shape and line in harmonic discord. The optical affect of paint and its variations of surface, and lighting composition stir a retinal residue residing in phenomenological periphery. This practice of alternative gestures, color, and material relationships challenge the pictorial space of painting and habitual modes of perception.

EVAN NESBIT (b.1985) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute, and his Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University, 2012. Nesbit has been awarded the Yale University Ely Harwood Schless Memorial Fund Prize for painting. He lives and works in Nevada City, California.