George Long has grown his art practice in Atlanta since earning his BFA in 1995 at the Atlanta College of Art. A multi-faceted artist we have watched his work evolve across painting, drawing, performance, and sculpture. As well as being prolific in his own work Long is very active as a collaborator and facilitator assisting other artists and art organizations to fulfill their goals. His generosity and contribution to his community are impactful. Along with Mery Lynn McCorkle and Clark Derbes, Long was scheduled to exhibit in the three person show “Three-Sided Square” with the gallery in March that was postponed due to COVID19. Stay tuned for enjoying that show physically in the gallery in the future as well virtually in our upcoming online viewing rooms. If you are strolling (responsibly) along the beltline in Atlanta these days, you can see Long’s mural of “squirkles” on the wall of Paris on Ponce. The focus of his work for the past several years has been engagingly playful and complex aggregations of circles in squares into “piles”. This series of collages on paper are named “Omniumgatherums”, which is loosely defined as meaning collection of collections. Long creates what he refers to as landscapes that are from a mental space-the space is where we assemble and sort through the stuff of our lives. A starting point for his imagery is inspired by the Zen practice of Enso, a meditative practice of focus using brush and ink to create a circle in one or two brushstrokes. The universal symbol of the circle inside a square alludes to sacred geometry and it’s range of potential meanings. Congregating these references and resources into piles that are recognizable in a landscape as well as abstract brings together a community of meanings.
"Postcards from a Pandemic" is brought to you by Marcia Wood Gallery in the hopes of keeping people connected to the transformative and hopeful power of art and the importance of artists' work during the Covid19 Pandemic.
