Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Friday, July 12th, 5:30pm

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art invites you to experience the diverse and transmutable world of color in Untitled: Works by Geoffrey Stocking. The installation consists of acrylic paintings and works on paper in varying sizes and presents the viewer with an immersive opportunity to participate in a visual conversation with form, shape, fields of color, and veils of layered translucent paint. The goal for Stocking is to present non-objective works of art that are the product of color research and experimentation, a process that is an extension of his earlier work, resulting in paintings that defy perception and challenge a viewer’s understanding of color.

“The most important part of my work is the color, specifically the viewer’s connection with color. Color is fascinating. The colors that can be found in nature are amazing and inspiring. Color can influence your emotions, can affect your feeling of joy or sadness, overwhelm and calm your senses, or make you recall a memory. Every person has their own connection to color which can be intensely personal. For example, color influences us in the same way that smell, taste, touch, and sight do, by creating lasting connections on a conscious or subconscious level to people, places, things, or time. Ultimately color can profoundly influence the way we see ourselves and the world around us.” – Geoffrey Stocking

About Geoffrey Stocking

Using glazing techniques inspired by the Italian Renaissance painters, these non-objective paintings are created by the building up of numerous translucent layers of different colors. The mixing of actual colors is very limited. It is through optical mixing that the final color is perceived.

Within the composition there is a play between organic and in-organic shapes, simple and complex color spaces, and light and heavy lines. All these elements together create a push / pull between the negative and positive space.

Geoff Stocking is an artist and museum professional. He received his BFA in painting and drawing from the University of Montana. He has exhibited his work in numerous museum and gallery-based group exhibitions in San Diego, California; Oceanside, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and Missoula, Montana. His work can be found in private collections. Stocking has over 20 years of experience working in the museum field and is Chief Collections & Exhibitions Officer at the C.M. Russell Museum, where he has been since 2013. Previously Stocking held positions in exhibition design, collections, and corporate sponsorship at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Boston, MA.

This exhibition is curated by Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collection at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Exhibitions at the museum are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana's cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Horizon Credit Union, an anonymous donor, and Kelly’s Signs & Design.