| Inspired by craggy precipices, rolling mists, and the lush foliage of
northwest Vietnam, Donald Cole presents a series of Mountain Visions, distilled and come to life through
multiple approaches to process and materials. In the winter of 2009, Cole journeyed to the mountains of
Vietnam north of Hanoi, just below China. On the wandering trails of Sapa the artist made drawings in his
sketchbook inspired both by the vistas before him and a longstanding love for mountain landscapes
depicted in traditional Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese art.
Join ArtXchange Gallery as we celebrate Mr. Cole, his Mountain Visions exhibition, and the remarkable
accomplishment of a 40+ year career as a painter - a lifetime dedicated to art and visual exploration. Mr.
Cole will be available during the reception on First Thursday July 1, 5-8 pm and First Thursday August 5,
5-8pm.
Cole’s signature bright colors and weathered surfaces are interspersed throughout the series, but each
painting is purposefully a technical departure from the next, alluding to the artist’s desire to continually
push his own boundaries. In richly textured large-scale canvases, mixed-media collages, and delicate ink
paintings on the surface of matchboxes, Cole playfully explores the possibilities of materials to express
the experience of beholding the awe inspiring natural world. Cole reflects, “the appearance and the
content of my work comes from several sources: the joy of painting and creating, and my own social,
psychological and ethical responses to the world as I live and view it.”
Donald Cole was born in New York City and currently lives on Vashon Island. His painting career emerged in the 1960s as he combined the
experience of studying painting in the artistic hotbed of New York, a love for the emotive possibilities of
abstract expressionist painting, and a resonance with the colors and textures of the non-Western world. He
has been awarded multiple awards and grants, including two grants from the NEA. While exhibiting
regularly on the East Coast, Cole also taught painting in Japan and Israel before settling in his current
home on Vashon Island. Now, in his 79th year, Cole still travels regularly to gain inspiration for his
artwork. He has exhibited in New York at 55 Mercer Gallery, French & Co., the Nancy Hoffman Gallery
and the Frank Marino Gallery. Since settling in the Pacific Northwest he has shown at galleries including
Foster/White Gallery, the Jeffrey Moose Gallery, ArtXchange Gallery and Gallery 070 on Vashon. He has
participated in Tacoma Art Museum biennials and his work is in a number of private and public
collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Worcester Art Museum, and the ARCO Center for the
Visual Arts, Los Angeles.
Opening First Thursday July 1, 5-8 pm! |
