thomas spoerndle
frik-shuhn: Scales (flip-flop), 2025
ABOUT THE exhibition
"I explore the relationship between cognitive processes and the malleable pictorial space of abstract painting using a distilled visual language focused on geometric shapes and the primary colors. During the ideation stages, shapes are configured in such a way that the resulting compositions contain a sense of visual rhythm and fluctuating figure ground relationships. Once established, I develop ways to disrupt these compositions to create an even more complex, puzzle-like network of relationships; variations are then articulated over the course of a series of works. In the process of painting, each shape is built-up layer by layer using thin washes of transparent paint, starting with grey then moving from less saturated to more saturated color, giving each shape's color a unique optical blend and sense of luminosity. The resulting active pictorial space has led me to using the title Frik-Shuhn, named after the phonetic spelling of the word friction, as a descriptive base for my paintings to allude to the dynamic tension created by this interaction of shape and color. There are several different established and developing series under the Frik-Shuhn umbrella, each with an additional title alluding to something I feel is embodied in the work.
Drawing from the rich history of abstraction as well as the multi-faceted nature of human perception, my paintings operate in a meditative space where pragmatism meets subjectivity, coalescing in a way that is both strikingly immediate and deceptively nuanced."
ABOUT THE artist
Thomas Spoerndle (b. Akron, OH) earned his MFA from Hunter College in 2010 and his BFA with an emphasis in Visual Culture and Writing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2007. Recent exhibitions include Malone Art Gallery, Malone University, Canton, OH; White Columns, NY, NY; and Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.