Marisa Kalil-Barrino & Jeff Way
1202 Magazine
September 26, 2024
Using almost every drawing and painting technique in artistry, Way is acclaimed for his chalk line grid paintings. He makes them with a carpenter’s chalk tool filled with powdered pigments. He then snaps the line across the canvas, creating nearly perfect grid lines with a do-it-yourself yardstick with nails. Much of this work, as well as his abstract pieces, are now on view at Storage at 52 Walker St. until October 5. Then & Now displays Way’s work from 1970 to 2024, showing the striking contrast of flatness and depth on his canvases.
Hi Jeff! Congratulations, and thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Could you tell me a bit about the meaning and purpose behind this exhibition on view at Storage and what viewers can expect to see?
The exhibition spans two key periods in my practice: The Chalk Line Paintings from 1969 to 1973, just after finishing graduate school at NYU, and the body of work, which I refer to as the Eccentric Squares. For the chalk line paintings, I used a carpenter's chalk line tool loaded with powdered pigments. I’d snap the line across a canvas placed horizontally, creating various pigment patterns, sometimes resembling soundwaves. I created this device using nails and a yardstick to ensure precision in lining up these marks, allowing for controlled yet expressive results.
I had read this book on Chinese painting and one passage really stuck with me–the art of painting consists of four main characters, horizontal and vertical, combining and scattering. This is what is meant by yin yang, which constitutes the Tao, and I thought that was kind of profound, and it really related directly to what I was doing in my painting practice. During this time, process-driven work was prevalent; artists like Richard Serra and Jackson Pollock used materials in ways that allowed the outcome to emerge from the act itself. This concept inspired me to explore the chalk line as a tool for creating art.
The current exhibition, titled Then & Now, shows both the early chalk line works and recent paintings from my Eccentric Squares series. In 2015, I returned to the chalk line works when my daughter asked if I had a white painting for her wedding. One of the pieces in the show is the actual painting from the ceremony. Revisiting the chalkline method after 40 years brought back the physical challenges of working with powdered pigments, but it also reignited my interest in this form. I began exploring variations, like working with grids and eccentric squares, which led to new drawings and, eventually, paintings.
In the show, viewers can expect to see a range of work, from large atmospheric paintings that involve casting and layering pigment to more structured, grid-based pieces. One notable early work is a 7x12 foot painting that uses horizontal lines and a richly built-up surface through a process of throwing and spraying pigment, allowing for a dynamic interaction of colors and textures. This painting, created between 1969 and 1970, marks a transition in my studio practice and serves as a grounding painting for the show.