Froelick Gallery presents our second solo exhibition for Portland-based painter Micah Hearn, The Other Shoe Drops. Coyly playful, unsparingly autobiographical, his active canvases evidence an impulsive, dynamic brushstroke laid over the imposed compositional order of a patchwork-like grid- a reference to his grandmother’s quiltmaking. His chromatically dazzling works are based on memory and the cascading layers of associations that memories bring on. These often concern complex family relationships and thorny issues surrounding the people and politics of his Mississippi hometown.
The Other Shoe Drops sees Micah putting distance between himself and his past, making a home life on his own terms- housecats, windows, blankets, alarm clocks and other touches of the domestic and everyday float through his scenes. However, as suggested in the show’s title, things that one might prefer to avoid must ultimately be dealt with- other paintings show telephones and letters as potentially oppressive means of staying in touch. One painting, tilted Cutting the Cord, shows two faces in profile, encircled by outdated but symbolically potent rotary phone handsets and curling cords. These faces communicate defiance and detachment, resolve, inquisitive searching- necessary tools for looking back and looking within.
