Works by Macyn Bolt
Macyn Bolt is an American abstract painter. Using a visual language informed by geometric abstraction, he creates artworks that examine how color and form create shifts in visual perception.
He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and upstate Pennsylvania.
Education
Bolt graduated with a BFA in 1979 from Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, MI, and earned his Masters of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1981.
Technique
Bolt works with acrylic paint on a variety of surfaces including canvas, wood panel, vinyl and paper. Using scrapers and palette knives, he builds up layers of paint, creating surfaces that seem both polished and hand made. He often strives to achieve heightened areas of contrast, exploring relationships between the painterly and the flat, the loose and the opaque. That contrast is further explored in relationships between colors. His process mirrors the balance he seeks between boldness and delicacy in his compositions.
Scale is also an important aspect of his work. His smaller works, which start around 16 x 15 inches, create opportunities for intimate viewer interactions. His larger works, which can range up to 84 x 180 inches, encompass viewers in a contemplative aesthetic space. The differences in size result in a range of perceptual experiences that is integral to the work.
Inspiration
Bolt is inspired by the "visual riddle" that can be evoked by spatial relationships, as well as the interplay between color and form. His reductive, monochromatic work examines both dramatic and nuanced shifts in visual perception. He is interested in what he calls, "the qualities of reflection and mirroring that are unique to the space of abstract painting." His work invites viewers into a contemplative experience as they interact with the fluctuating polarities of concrete and illusionary space.
Relevant Quotes
The gallerist and curator Harry Simon, owner of Simon Gallery in Morristown, New Jersey, wrote about Bolt’s work in 2016, saying:
“These paintings represent the new visual foundation that Bolt has employed over the last three years which utilizes a symmetrically divided composition to posit open and closed forms, interlocking shapes and illusionary spaces. In doing so, he affirms the complex, often contradictory, nature of spatial comprehension.”
Timothy Van Laar, artist, critic, author and curator of the “About Painting” exhibition Bolt’s work was included in at the Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit, MI in 2016 wrote about Macyn Bolt:
“Macyn Bolt’s Shadow Boxer series investigates the qualities of reflection and mirroring that are unique to the space of abstract painting. These are paintings in which rigorous, reductive imagery shifts between flat and illusory. Anchored within the symmetry of two equal divisions, the crosscurrents of these spatial polarities ricochet off each other to create a subtle equilibrium.”
Exhibitions
Macyn Bolt has exhibited in multiple solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States.
Collections
Work by Macyn Bolt is included in many corporate and institutional collections, including those of the Newark Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Progressive Companies, the Janet Turner Print Museum, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and TIAA-CREF.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
“Twisted Logic- Paintings by Macyn Bolt”, Sussex Community College, Newton, NJ
“Warm Up, Chill Down, Thaw Out”, DM Contemporary, New York, NY (three Person)
2016
Simon Gallery, Morristown, NJ
2014
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
Simon Gallery, Morristown, NJ
2006
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2003
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2002
I space, Chicago, IL
2001
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
1998
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
1991
Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY
1988
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY
1987
San Antonio Art Institute, San Antonio, TX
1986
Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
“This Ones for You” summer show, DM Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY
2016
“The Indian Summer Show”, DM Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY
“About Painting”, Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit, MI
2015
“40 - The Anniversary Exhibition “, Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY
“The Circle and Square Game”, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
“The Lightness of Being: Part II”. Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, Sarasota, FL
“Satellite”, Pop - up exhibit in NYC, Chandra Cerrito Gallery, Oakland, CA
2014
“Sequential Abstraction”, Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2013
“Constructed Space”, Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY (three person)
2012
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2010
Heidi Cho Gallery, New York, NY (two person)
“Stratigraphic”, Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
2007
“Doupolis”, Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA
2006
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, Sarasota, FL
2005
Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (two person)
2004
Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville CT
2002
Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2001
Signal 66 Gallery, Washington D.C. (two person )
1996
“Essence” , Radix Gallery, New York, NY
1995
“Under Glass” , Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1994
“About Color” , Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY
1987
“The Fictional Figure”, Caroline Lee Gallery, Houston, TX
1986
Matthew Scott Gallery, Miami, FL
TEN” , Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY
1985
Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL1
“Stigmata” , Bond Gallery, New York
Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN (three person)
“The 39 th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting” , The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Traveled to: The Mary and Leigh Block Gallery , Northwestern University , Evanston, IL; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youn gstown, OH; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
1984
Bonnier Gallery, New York, NY
“Totem”, Bonnier Gallery, New York, NY
Michael Hartnett “Abstract Perspective, Macyn Bolt”, Milford Journal, December 2017
Anthony Bannon, The Chautauquan Daily, August 13, 2015
DeWitt Cheng, “Stratigraphic Aggregates”, East Bay Express , October, 2010
Jakki Spear, East Bay Express , December 26, 2007
Matthew Guy Nichols, “Macyn Bolt: Recent Work”, exhibition catalog, Kim Foster Gallery, 2006
Ken J ohnson, New York Times , September 14, 2001
Robert Murdock, Review Magazine , April 1, 1998
Deborah Yellin, ARTnews , September, 1991
William Zimmer, New York Times , December 23, 1990, p.20 WC
Alexander Enders, Art & Antiques , December 1990, p. 38
Eleanor Heartney, “Macyn Bolt: Recent Sculpture and Drawing”, exhibition catalog, Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1988
Tony Towle, Art in America , December, 1987
Dan Goddard, San Antonio Express News , August 9, 1987
Matthew Rose, Arts Magazine , April, 1987
William Zimme r, New York Times , November 7, 1986
Robert Mahoney, Arts Magazine , May, 1986
Matthew Rose, Arts Magazine , February, 1986
David A. Fryxell, “The Ones to Watch”, Ozark Magazine , February, 1985
Mary Roth Riordan, “Macyn Bolt/David Smith - Greenwood”, Detroit Focus Quarterly , March 1985
Lisa Lyons, The 39 th Corcoran Biennial Exhibition of American Painting , exhibition catalogue, 1985
Stephen Kaplan, “Totem” exhibition catalogue, 1984