House in the Hills above Nice

Expressed in masterful blotches of acrylic and suggestions of figuration amidst a sea of abstraction, Lois Gold’s House in the Hills above Nice is a virtuoso painting that teases the physical out of the abstract. The house in the center-right of the work grounds the picture in the material world. Perhaps, without the figurative addition of the hillside home, the work would appear as an entirely abstract amalgamation of colorful brushstrokes. Still, I think regardless of the figurative intrusion and even the name, Gold communicates a landscape. The way the colors move into one another and build upon each underlying layer recalls complexly oriented vistas. Nature, like abstraction, can seem unplanned and chaotic, but organic formations are intrinsically intentional. Their rough topography and kaleidoscopic appearance are systematic and inescapable; the same is true with House in the Hills above Nice.