The Speed of Color in Warren Rosser’s Unexpected Consequences

In the Distance, 2018, digital print on paper, framed, 60 x 35.5″ (ed. 3). Engineered Landscape #14, 2018, digital print on canvas, mounted, 60 x 35.5″ (ed. 3). Engineered Landscape #15, 2018, digital print on canvas, mounted, 60 x 35.5″ (ed. 3). Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary.

Warren Rosser’s prolific practice in the technology of paint is again realized for his recent

exhibition, Unexpected Consequences at Haw Contemporary Crossroads. Rosser has

opened up a parallel practice, a two-way conversation, existing through materiality and

adaptability. Following a recent hand surgery and retirement as Kansas City Art Institute’s

former painting department chair and William T. Kemper Distinguished professor, Rosser

explores the practice of digital manipulation, and conversely its effects on his painting

practice.

As described in the Artist Talk led by Rosser in the space of the gallery, big paintings were

the goal the last year but the year took another turn after the use of his dominant hand was

impossible due to surgery. Amid the skepticism one encounters when approaching a new

working perspective, Rosser began churning out his digital works. Rosser describes, “it

doesn’t matter the medium, it’s about seeing the process in motion.” Color relies not only on

context when immediately observing a painting, but also the way in which material manifests

color. Formally, color establishes its context within the parameters of physical material,

through pigment, and in the instance of one of Rosser’s parallel practices, digital works.

Much like a floppy disk icon representing the ‘save’ function, or the Photoshop ‘canvas’

alluding to the fabric of canvas used traditionally for paint, color establishes its memory

across function and time.

Color, when simulated on a computer screen, impacts the speed in which a narrative is

created and ultimately read, redefining experience and perception entirely. Whether that be

scrolling through a ‘manila folder’ of images, rather than flipping through a file of images

printed on paper, the reading and timing adjust until the latter is lost. In the instance of color

on a computer monitor, much of the color on a screen is formed through a CMYK process

especially when printed a subtractive method of mixing is typical. This process differs from

the additive demand of pigment. In Unexpected Consequences, Warren Rosser uncovers the

speed of color and its potentials on compositional elements.

Adjustability appears to be an undercurrent of Rosser’s practice, not only in process but also

circumstance. There was another incident where Rosser had a concussion in 1998. “It was a

pretty serious concussion that affected my balance. I was making large wooden structures at

the time, and I didn’t trust myself working on the table saw and with industrial equipment, and

I hadn’t painted for a number of years. Maybe the bang in my head brought it to the front.”

Following the concussion, Rosser started painting again, shifting from three-dimensional

work back into two-dimensional work. “Circumstances to a large extent can determine what

is available to you, and what you feel comfortable doing.”

Switching dimensions freed Rosser from expectations. He started a few paintings that he

describes as first not making sense. “It wasn’t what I was trying to do, it was how I was trying

to do it. I was using brushes, and there was still this muscle memory, and I didn’t want to do

that. That’s when I changed the tools, I started using squeegees, and started stretching on

the floor so it could become an arena.” The paintings resulted in his Slippage series. The

sculptural structures Rosser was building became embedded in the painting language. The

paintings became about movement and sequence; the divisions and successive forms

influenced by three-dimensional space. “Changing dimensions really changed procedures,

but really, the critical thinking is still the same. You’re just adjusting to a new set of materials.”

Reaching Through…Continuous Loop, 2000, acrylic paint on canvas, 54 x 140″. Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary.

Edge and color are two elements paramount to Rosser’s practice. Much like Josef Albers’

monochromatic prints in contrast to his theoretical practice of color, the tension of edge and

color is Rosser’s uniquely formed narrative between colore and disegno. The edges in

Rosser’s recent paintings become passages or glitches, resulting in striking and inspective

compositions constantly in flux. Recalling Rosser’s series Fictive Monuments from 2012, the

paintings formed structures with sharpened black edges. The compositions in this series

could not exist in our reality of gravity, while the planes were opaquely solidified, but denied

the viewer’s attempt to find a non-fictive formation from the definite lines. The neutral planes

reinforce the low-chroma, gray, day-to-day realities, creating an entrance into the familiar

space of the painting.

Monument #2, 2012, acrylic paint on canvas, 84 x 60″. Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary.

Looking at Warren’s digital prints feels as though one is looking at his oil paintings through

glass; the speed and clarity of the layers create a translucency. Rosser has found in his

digital work that he doesn’t need to wait for the paint to dry as opposed to working with

opacity embedded in pigment. Rosser describes wiping off more paint than leaving on the

canvas. The struggle with physical pigment is eliminated in the digital process, where opacity

and transparency have a level of control, equal to that of taking samples of digital color

swatches or controlling – removing or adding ‘layers’. Though, Rosser is not interested in

complicating the process, and treats his digital work with a rather similar command and set of

tools as his oil paintings. The thin substrates of mounted paper float off of the wall intending

to reveal this thinness of surface to the viewer. In terms of sequence and flipping of

composition in Series A, B, C, he believes it a familiar territory from his printmaking

experience. The read of the works could also be partially informed by the subtractive color

processes of the printer. Rosser says he would like to begin his next six paintings with a

more watercolor-like quality, exploring how his “digital work pushed into deeper space more

rapidly.”

Series A, B, C, 2018, digital prints on paper, framed, 31.5 x 33.5″ (ed. 20). Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary.

The digital work is a new language to Rosser. He didn’t want the pieces to feel like surrogate

paintings. “When the digital work is printed, it has a presence and a scale. When it’s on a

screen, it’s nothing.” Composed of several planes and a sharp diagonal, Both Sides, a large

90 x 120 inch oil painting has a kind of spectral color-mark akin to a galactic space

fragmenting and disappearing into potentially never-ending dimensions; the erratic shift

coming from splayed color. Color at its core is expansive, acting as a representation of

region, sky and landscape, or of time — particularly with the technology available at a period

of time. There is an implied narrative within Both Sides, where the title and compositional

elements suggest another world, or reality on the other side of the painting formed by the

defining diagonal that drops into the void closest to the ground of the painting.

Both Sides, 2018, oil on linen, 90 x 120″. Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary.

Rosser’s shift across languages reveal time as a construct. Through layers and through

observational adjustment Rosser reveals time as a material part of his vocabulary. His recent

digital work serves this contextualization of color through an arrangement interspersed with

digital media and oil paintings in Unexpected Consequences. “Each painting starts in a way

from scratch.” Rosser’s astute definitions form in part from his visual language moving

across platforms, defining his parameters within fluctuations of formal elements, making him

a deeply refined communicator.

Portrait of the Artist, 2017

Unexpected Consequences can be viewed at Haw Contemporary Crossroads until January

16, 2019. See it Wednesday this week from 12 – 6pm during the gallery open hours at 19 W

19th St, KCMO 64108.