Exhibition

Dis/Order

Trudy Benson & Russell Tyler
September 14, 2024 – October 16, 2024

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Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to announce a two-person exhibition with New York-based artists Trudy Benson and Russell Tyler, titled Dis/Order and opening September 14, 2024. The exhibition of new paintings marks the artists’ first presentation together in Detroit.

Benson’s work explores the phenomenology of painting in the digital age. Her canvases are a vivid testament to the physical presence of paint, where the scent of fresh pigments and the textured surfaces offer an immediate, sensory engagement. Competing colors, styles and shapes overlap and interact to create illusions of shallow depth and elements of collage that reveal themselves to be entirely fictive upon closer inspection.

Likewise, geometric forms, almost never precise, are juxtaposed with gestural linework reminiscent of subconscious doodles, warranting the sight of dizzying grids from afar and tessellating labyrinths at close range. Though inclusive of virtual imaging techniques, reflected in the dynamism of the paintings’ saturated color palettes, Benson is equally interested in the tactile and historical nature of her material.

Much like Benson’s work, Tyler’s paintings are characterized by impasto brushwork and a deliberate exploration of vibrant color and form. His expressive approach to the canvas produces pieces ranging from geometric abstractions to gestural landscapes and abstract floral compositions, all while adhering to a meticulously structured methodology. Tyler’s work often subverts traditional expectations of their origin; for instance, his geometric abstractions, which might conventionally suggest complete flatness and austerity, instead emphasize the texture of each brushstroke, transforming a typically rigid and concrete subject into one that is fluid and organic. This energetic quality pervades the full spectrum of Tyler’s abstract styles, creating a cohesive throughline in the different branches of his painting practice.

A unifying aspect of the featured bodies of work is the shared sense of nostalgia that underpins them both. Tyler's paintings draw from his childhood experiences growing up in Hawaii and Victoria, British Columbia, where the fluorescent natural landscapes left a lasting impression on his perspectives of color. His gestural abstractions evoke both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of earthly landscapes, with motifs that oscillate between the micro and macro. Benson, on the other hand, finds inspiration in the early digital paint programs that fascinated her as a child, shaped by her father's work as a computer programmer. Despite their different conceptual approaches—Tyler's rooted in the natural world and Benson's in the digital—both artists explore the enduring impact of formative influences and environments on their contemporary practices.

Dis/Order with Tudy Benson and Russell Tyler is on view from September 14 - October 16, 2024 at Louis Buhl & Co.

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