ANN PIBAL / BIO – EXHIBITIONS – WRITING – CONTACT – @ANNPIBAL
Edgers, Geoff. “Ann Pibal Awarded deCordova Musuem’s Rappaport Prize”, The Boston Globe, June 21, 2013.
Stockwell, Craig. “Like Swimming in the Ocean at Night”, Studio Visit with Ann Pibal” Art New England, January February 2013
Concise. Decisive. Refined. Self-contained. These are all apt descriptors of Ann Pibal’s modestly sized paintings on aluminum. Lately though, Pibal has allowed her pristine surfaces to be invaded by shockingly expressive brushstrokes that seem to only reaffirm the level of control she manages over her pantings.
Pibal draws on the long lineage of abstract painting from the reductive forms of Minimalism to the gestural nature of Abstract Expressionism to the present day practices of peers like Tomma Abts. But as art historian Robert Storr asserts, Pibal is not dependent on her precedents any more than she is on the stylish currents of today. In fact, one could argue that her strength lies in the refusal to associate with any one group or movement. For instance, despite her overt reference of and homage to Barnett Newman’s room-scaled ‘zips’, and large colorfield paintings with single stripes of paint that bisect their surface, she resolutely contests that specific and male-dominated Abstract Expressionist heritage by scaling down and reining in her paintings.
In her own words, Pibal is interested in the “fragmentation of a whole, a shifting proposal – something evolving, on the move — not fixed.” With that in mind, she makes rules and then breaks them when they no longer nurture, but limit her creative process. Pibal is a skilled colorist and understands what she notes as the “expressionistic potential of color.” She exploits the myriad possibilities that arise from the small cups of paint that liter her work surface — plums and ochres, earthy greens and dusky blues. She seeks “fresh, unusual or mysterious” and “Surprising combinations.”
Concise. Decisive. Refined. Self-contained. Mysterious. Perhaps to this list we could add rebellious: like a first child trading on her reputation for obedience, Pibal’s paintings convince you that they are playing by the rules, only to sneak out the back door and do exactly as they please.
– Abigail Ross Goodman
ANN PIBAL 