Doug Harvey

St Sebastian Soylent Rainbow Labyrinth (Carving Up the Ruins of Abstract Painting)

For his third solo exhibition at POST, now PØST, Doug Harvey will present a giant, two-sided interactive abstract painting on paper. Part of Harvey’s recent exploration of working with discarded, decaying, and purposely pre-rotted materials, the painting was executed using aged leftover paints, including latex mistints, curdled acrylics, oils gone wild, and mystery fluids found in unmarked cans and left to ferment for up to a decade. The paper is an entire roll of “seamless” photographic backdrop paper found on the street and left outside in the elements for the last 4 years.

Arranged in a clockwise spiral (in a balancing opposite rotation to the layout of his 1997 POST installation St. Sebastian Tom Sawyer Cathy Mishima Expo 67), the approximately 11 ½ X 64 ft St Sebastian Soylent Rainbow Labyrinth operates as a basic Chartres-like walk-through environment. Excised rectangular segments interrupt the stability of the visual continuum, and the excised portions are available for sale to the public at $5 per segment. In addition, visitors may excise any rectangular segment from the larger work for purchase. The artist will be present to sign any purchased segment. St Sebastian Soylent Rainbow Labyrinth was created specifically for this one-night exhibit, and any unsold portions will be destroyed at the end of the show.