Blue Moon Gallery exhibition features beauty of geometry

GRAYSLAKE – After moving to Minnesota two years ago, founding artist Bob Nonnemacher returns to Grayslake’s Blue Moon Gallery with a new collection of acrylic paintings in geometric abstraction.

Nonnemacher is presenting 10 new supersized paintings in “A Confluence of Shapes,” his new exhibition featuring his continued exploration of the beauty of geometry.

The gallery will host an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. July 27 that is free and open to the public. The exhibition is on view through Aug. 11.

To create his earlier “both sides” geometric paintings over the past 10 years, Nonnemacher employed two contrasting painting techniques – wet/dry and glossy/flat – on each side of a single canvas. He then deconstructed his canvases using predetermined geometric cut patterns, typically cutting them up into more than 200 pieces.

By flipping over every other piece and reassembling the canvas, he was able to reveal the contrasting painting techniques from the front and back to now show side by side by each other. Nonnemacher then glued these reassembled pieces to new substrates and produced final images that exuded fresh optical energy, vibrant color palettes and captivating patterns, with each new image offering exhilarating perspectives on geometric abstraction.

In his newest collection, Nonnemacher returns to these same techniques but builds upon and enhances them while also creating brand-new techniques and processes to further explore his visual study of geometric abstraction. As a collection, the new paintings offer a unique set of characteristics for the viewer.

“When dissecting my paintings into individual components, I appreciate the multitude of shapes and find joy in each section as much as I do in the whole,” Nonnemacher said in a news release. “I find fulfillment in the visual appeal generated by the interaction of simple shapes, individually or in combination, which results in a captivating aesthetic that brings the painting to life and invites deeper engagement.

“Geometry is beautiful and I want to share how I see it. When people view my paintings, I hope they will be moved by the aesthetics of a simpler form, that they will be able to look at a simple shape and find great beauty.”

Patrons can meet Nonnemacher at the opening reception, as well as during gallery hours from 1 to 4 p.m. July 28 and Aug. 10 and 11.

Blue Moon Gallery also is hosting two pop-up shows and its year-round collective artists at the July 27 reception. Local artist Brian Garoutte will be showing a series of mixed media collages and acrylic paintings outside “on the bricks.” Local artist Tim Flynn will be showing life-size sculptures made of unusual supersized found objects and parts plus colored-pencil drawings on the gallery’s front patio. Flynn also will provide musical entertainment on ukulele.

The gallery’s year-round collective artists – John Kirkpatrick, Ginny Krueger, Juli Janovicz, Kendra Kett, Matthew Padilla – will be in attendance at the opening reception and presenting new works in acrylic, encaustic, watercolor, mixed media and oil.

Blue Moon Gallery is located at 18620 Belvidere Road in Grayslake. For more information, visit www.thebluemoongallery.com.