The second time around

Suzie Harrison

Two times is a charm for artist Roger Weik’s exhibiting at

[seven-degrees.] He did a holiday show last winter and is enjoying

the success of his newest display, which runs through Jan. 28.

“No one has exhibited more than two or three times,” marketing

director Allison Ahlfeldt said. “His work is really interesting, the

textures, it all works -- [they] have an added depth, coloring and

shadowing.”

Weik said he really loves the space at [seven-degrees].

“I feel it’s a real honor to show at [seven-degrees],” Weik said.

“It’s 6,500 square feet, it’s like a museum setting.”

Last year he showed 10 years of work, some that he had not shown

before.

He said because he is able to show more pieces, the space is a

showcase for artists and a great and rare opportunity to show a

larger group of work.

“They let me pick and choose what I am going to show, which is

kind of an honor,” Weik said. “Usually galleries tell you what to

show, saying I want this painting or that painting.”

He said at [seven-degrees], Dora Wexell, director of programming

and sales trusts him and knows he is going to put together a good

show.

He explained that the materials he used for this show for most of

his pieces are the same he has been using for years, copolymer

emulsion.

Weik’s painting process starts with the canvas flat on his studio

floor, where the paint is poured.

“This year’s paintings compared to last year’s are much more

minimal and reductive,” Weik said. “They poured in layers, most like

you saw are fairly linear.”

The poured lines go either horizontal or vertical, but most are

vertical, which he has preferred since the ‘70s.

“It seems to give the paintings much more presence,” Weik said.

“With abstract you try to overwhelm the viewer and vertical seems to

lend itself more to that and it’s more spiritual.”

Horizontal is more of a landscape or more earthly.

“Vertical relates more to the infinite than the earth, which is

more finite,” Weik said.

His canvases are anything but reductive some measuring 36 by 48

inches and he said the theme itself isn’t reductive.

“The show is one year’s work, which is quite a lot of work plus

working a full-time job,” Weik said. “One I was still working on

midnight the night before. That’s the way it goes.”

The coloration is washes of color on top of the white paint, which

is called a wash.

“It’s a powdered pigment that’s applied last, on top of all the

emulsion,” Weik said.

He pointed out on a particular painting, for example, that one can

see the green in-between black or blue, which is applied on top and

then the entire painting surface is polished to reveal again the

under-painting.

“The green one I have been painting for seven years,” Weik said.

“It went through a lot of different modes that were a disaster. It

was pulled it into a corner for two years. I knew I would get back to

it.

He thought he would try that one again when he started doing

minimalist paintings.

“I got back into that painting again, it started coming together,”

Weik said. “There’s a lot of under-painting you see when you look at

the surface, which really adds to it.”

He said he has received much positive feedback and of the nearly

50 pieces in the show, “Study in Green” is the favorite of many.

“They’re really about painting and the beauty of paint,” Weik

said. “For me it’s fine, people can come up to me and say I see this

or that. I never correct them.”

He said that sometimes he might see things in them, but he doesn’t

really paint with a preconceived idea of seeing a certain picture.

“I am always surprised by the unexpected,” Weik said.

His figures are some of his newest works. He said that he gets a

real spiritual feeling from them and created each one to be seen

individually, to stand by itself to be powerful.

Weik has studied primeval, prehistoric art and caves.

“These are very primitive -- at the same time sophisticated and

modern,” Weik said.

He said it can take 20 to 25 castings of one piece to get the

effects he is looking for on the smaller pieces.

“[seven-degrees] has given me so much exposure, opened the doors

for me to so many new opportunities,” Weik said.

[seven-degrees] is at 891 Laguna Canyon Road. To find out more

about Weik’s exhibit or upcoming show, call (949) 376-1555 or go to

www.seven-degrees.com.