Hollis Taggart is pleased to present Parallels: Chloë Lamb and Bill Scott, a two-person exhibition of British artist Chloë Lamb (b. 1960) and American artist Bill Scott (b. 1956), who both work in the tradition of 20th century colorists and abstract expressionists. On view from January 15 to February 26, the exhibition features selections of their paintings, which are united by their masterful handling of color and careful attention to the formal possibilities of oil paint.

In pairing these two artists, this exhibition endeavors to highlight the parallels in their processes of painting. Both artists develop their paintings instinctually, without any preconceived idea of how the finished work will look. Lamb builds her compositions through improvisational mark-making, allowing her first mark on the canvas to dictate the rest of the composition. Scott, too, echoes this approach of unpremeditated beginnings. As he describes it: “When I first start working on a blank canvas, I usually have no idea what I am going to do and the very first colors seem rather arbitrary… I have no idea how the painting will proceed, but I have tremendous faith in the process.” Eschewing literal representation of objects or places, both artists’ works evoke sensations rather than tangible realities. Scott’s paintings materialize imagined landscapes, or what he “subconsciously yearns to see,” while Lamb takes her observations of the world as a departure point rather than as final images. Displaying these two artists’ shared sense of skillful abstraction and improvisational approaches to painting, this exhibition brings together two talented painters who expand the parameters and possibility of abstract painting.