As I have begun surveying abstract painting during my artistic reintroduction over the past several years, I honestly have been a little disheartened. I see a landscape littered with artists creating what I deem as “processed paintings” that are focused on the mass production of visual effects and are void of the artist’s voice. Like their processed food counterparts, these paintings are quick and consumable in order to satiate tastes but offer little nutritional (or artistic) value.

However, if you stay focused, there are also plenty of artists that are creating compelling and important works. Mikel Frank stands among those, and it is with that backdrop that I would like to share my thoughts on Mikel Frank’s exhibition “In the GAP” on display at the Charlotte Art League (CAL) through January 2024.

Global Art Project or GAP is an international multi-media collective with 75 members across 18 countries for which Frank is a member of the “Frag Exchange Project” where fragments of found and discarded materials are shared amongst members to be incorporated into their collages. The CAL exhibition is a survey of Frank’s work including not just those from the Frag Exchange, but also other works from his storied career. The mixed media paintings range from small collages on panel to larger canvases. It highlights his individual vision as well as his love of artistic collaboration.

Mikel Frank is a master of color, composition, and technique. His works are steeped in post-World War 2 American modernism. The spirit of Kline, Motherwell, de Kooning, Rauschenberg, and Johns are all present but not parroted in his compositions. As the viewer engages with the individual works, they feel as if they are getting to know the artist himself. His touch, his emotions, his connections, his memories, his humor, his consciousness and subconsciousness are all imprinted. The intimacy of smaller pieces is countered by the immediacy of the larger works, demonstrating not just Frank’s range as an artist, but his range as a human.

Frank’s palette also varies greatly from deep, dark, and rich (and at times almost acidic) to soft and serene. The yellows are amazing, whether warm and bold or fainted pastorals. His images are impactful but nuanced and invite the viewer in for closer inspection, upon which they discover a world of cleverly placed image and word fragments concealed and revealed through layers of glazing and scumbled paint, transfers, drips and markings, transparent papers, fibers and fabrics, as well as modulated surfaces of tinted epoxies/resins/encaustics. Frank’s mastery of nuance is perhaps at its best when his palette is more subdued, when the beauty of raw canvas fringe touches the layer of raw canvas beneath; when you ask yourself, “How could I have missed something so beautiful before?”

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