Geochromatic Studies / Out of Gamut installed at Monaco in St. Louis, MO, 2021. [Photo credits: David Johnson]
For their exhibition at Monaco, Urban and Mutchler compose a group of works that consider digital and analog gamuts and imagine a transitional space between them. Inspired by the quack color science of the late nineteenth century, Geochromatic Studies / Out of Gamut meditates on color’s ability to straddle spaces- both real and imagined- and transport us to alternate dimensions.
The exhibition is anchored by a central printed image, Out of Gamut (Dark Rainbow). A large, digitally-printed grid that spans the wall and floor and engages with objects and images both in and out of the color space. Two planar works, Modified Boulders Rock Mold and Boulders Rock Mold Inverso operate as liminal panels alternating between the real and the imagined, the possible and the actual. Another freestanding grid appears as a three-dimensional support structure in Circles in Circles in Squares (Color Meditations), a sculptural work made of over thirty beaded meditation necklaces the artists produced in their kitchen during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. The necklaces, made with humble materials- salt, flour, oil, and pigment- are a kind of analog color picker and tactile alternative to doom scrolling. Woven through a metal wire grid, the piece leans against the wall like a composite figure, tired, but sturdy- in and out of color.