FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

STRUCTURE PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER BY LOUIS POOLE AND CURTIS RIPLEY AT THE PAGE BOND GALLERY MAY 2, 2008

The Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Louis Poole and Curtis Ripley. Poole, a long-time Richmond artist, is known for his abstracted cottages and vernacular houses taken from his travels around Virginia and the Outer Banks. Ripley, a resident of Los Angeles, paints colorful, dreamlike abstractions that he has exhibited in Richmond since the 1970s. These paintings by Poole and Ripley will be on view at the Page Bond Gallery, 1625 W Main Street, with an opening reception honoring the artists Friday, May 2, 2008 from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition will remain on view at the gallery through May 31, 2008.

Louis Poole’s paintings demonstrate his process and his engagement with paint. The architectural elements of his subject matter give him the underlying structure to which he brings order with line and color. These fanciful and bright paintings of cottages play on the familiar and are imbued with a feeling of inhabitance despite the fact that they don’t exist in real life. Poole’s houses do not feel owned; they feel universal.

Poole, a native of South Carolina, came to Richmond to earn his BFA at Virginia Commonwealth University. Since that time he has shown his work extensively throughout the region. His work is included in major collections such as Capital One, Richmond, VA, Corestates Financial Corporation, Philadelphia, PA, Media General Richmond, VA, and Bank of America Financial Company, Norfolk, VA.

Curtis Ripley’s paintings are atmospheric and gestural non-representations that use color gradation and abstract marking to express motion and space. Working spontaneously yet with an interest in a dichotomy between the concrete and the ephemeral, Ripley refers to his subjects as situations, relationships and emotions. The subtle colors mixed with brightly contrasting elements allow the viewer depth and space for contemplation.

Ripley, born in Lubbock, Texas, now lives in Los Angeles where he paints and owns the ceramics studio, Luna Garcia, with his wife Cindy. An old friend of Richmond, owing to a stint teaching painting at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ripley has shown his work on the east coast in addition to California. Ripley received an artist fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979. His work is in corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Imperial Hotel, Osaka, Japan, Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, J.P. Morgan Chase, New York, and the Federal Reserve Bank, Richmond, VA.