Charlie Goering

“Goering strives for a way of working that is self-sustaining. Compositions, formed through free association, allow the artist to use what is around him to engage with an ever-evolving visual language, iterating each subsequent painting. The artist’s lived experiences and environment lead him to unearthing the quotidian objects depicted in the work. Leaning into chance occurrences with objects, he happens upon a cast of recurring things to paint. The artist’s connection with friends and loved ones, gifting or assisting in the discovery of objects, is vital to the selection process. Through these “things'' the artist sets up situations to be mediated upon. He arranges “things” with no consideration for any real world utility they might have, leading him to question typical still life modes.

Goering’s still life’s are painted in a frank, straightforward manner. The paintings contain the DNA of artists such as Albers, Johns and Morandi. Reflecting on the history of painting, the artist asks the viewer to upend their expectations about abstraction and realistic painting or even ascribed genres of painting. As in Natura Morta, can a set of bones, carefully considered, be both a still life and figure painting? Can a leaf, and an arrangement of miscellaneous objects on varied color fields be considered as an abstract whole? With the spirit of collage at the center of Goering’s practice, he pieces together that which is in his immediate vicinity, within reach, in hopes of stumbling upon meaning.”