McClain Gallery is pleased to present Almighty Mountain: an exhibition of paintings by Brendan Cass. This is Cass’ second solo show at the gallery.
The prismatic strength of the new mountainscapes is a result of Cass’ daring use of color, inspired in equal measure by hues found in nature, like iridescent insects, and human-made objects, like the neon clothing seen on the beach-goers of Naples, Florida. Cass’ paintings settle somewhere between gestural abstraction and landscape; they place the viewer in the throes of imagined, remembered, or reproduced vistas. He often finds source imagery in postcards, puzzles, or other representations of faraway lands. Eschewing the tradition of plein air landscape painting, Cass anchors his practice strictly in the studio, and conjures the sublime with how his paintings are engulfed in scale or color.
The inclusion of an earlier painting, the large-scale Lofoten, 2006, provides a narrative thread to his earlier work. While the subject matter of landscapes has persisted in Cass’ work since the early 2000s, the paintings from 2021 mark a deliberate departure from his earlier endeavors. Lofoten is based on a postcard image of an archipelago by that name in Norway known for its rugged cliffs that abut blue-watered bays and picturesque villages. The size of the canvas, 78 x 108 inches, is in direct contrast to the postcard size of his source imagery; it is a testament to Cass’ mastery of scale. By comparison, the 2021 Almighty Mountain paintings have no source imagery other than the artist’s memory of his travels and his love of nature, which led him to a more formal method of painting. These works take on a more intimate size, but Cass multiplies his effort in repetition: each peak is unique, but the overall effect of the mountains’ multiplication is a feeling of ubiquity.
In his own words, Cass approaches painting in the same way a bird might build a nest. He sees the Divine in every aspect of nature and finds the glory of God in the wonders of creation like mountain peaks and celestial bodies: “I’m exalted by light and life and by being around colorful paint. I’m grateful for my hands to move the paint around the canvas and amazed to be alive and to be a part of art-making.”
Brendan Cass (b. 1974, New Jersey) attended Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, Annandale, New York, at School of Visual Art, New York and The SUNY Purchase, in Purchase, New York. His work has been exhibited internationally at Velge & Noirhomme in Brussels, Lars Bohman Gallery in Stockholm, Rove/Kenny Schachter in London and Stellan Holm Gallery in New York and can be found in the permanent collections of the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; and the Denver Museum of Art, Denver, Colorado. McClain Gallery included Cass’ work in several group shows including Monster Painting, 2005; a two-person exhibition with Naomie Kremer in 2010; and Flowers in 2013. McClain Gallery held solo shows of the artist’s work in 2012 and 2022. Cass splits his time between his studios in New York and in Naples, Florida.