— Jim Condron: Diminishing Returns, a solo exhibition showcasing over twenty paintings and new sculptural works will be presented at Goucher College’s Silber Art Gallery in the Sandy J. Unger Athenaeum now open through March 26, 2018 at 1021 Dulaney Valley Road, in Baltimore. An artist’s reception will be held February 9, 2018, from 6:00-9:00 p.m,

This exhibition incites viewers to examine the application of the economic principle of the law of diminishing returns to painting and art making in the 21st century. The paintings in the show range in size from 5x6 inches to 90x144 inches. Each painting gradually increases in size while maintaining the project’s foundational proportion. The sculptural works in the show reference farming practices and consider the framework by which the economic concept of the law of diminishing returns was founded and explained. The agriculturally based sculptures and abstract paintings also investigate the law of diminishing marginal utility. A highlight of the show is a sculpture made from a vintage 1940’s General GG tractor in a bed of Red Bird Peppermint Puffs. Visitors are invited to experience the principle of diminishing marginal utility by eating as many of the candies as they like.

Through his paintings, Condron presents a haptic convergence of scale, size, color, texture, and dimensionality. The works explore how the physical size of a painting impacts the meaning and power of a work of art for both the artist and the viewer. The paintings in the show are hung in succession vertically and horizontally from the largest works to the smallest works. It is the artist’s hope that as the viewer confronts the exhibition and then each painted canvas, the importance of the scale and size of the work diminishes and the viewer is absorbed in the experience of each individual work of art.

The sculptural works in the exhibition, constructed from vintage farm equipment, are poignant reminders of America’s rich, though tainted, agricultural past and the economic challenges American farmers face in the year 2018 at a moment in history when the commodification of art is unregulated.

A Panel Discussion, “Diminishing Returns:  A Discussion of the Economics of Art,” will be held on March 2, 6-7:15. Jim Condron will be in conversation with Doreen Bolger, former director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, David Findlay, Pugh Family Professor of Economics, Colby College, ME, and Laura Amussen, artist and Goucher College gallery director. The panel, free and open to the public, will discuss the economics of art.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jim Condron, originally from Long Island, NY and Connecticut, lives and works in Baltimore. Condron earned his MFA at the Leroy E. Hofffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Art and English from Colby College, Waterville, ME. He also studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. Since 1993, Condron has studied with Rohini Ralby, the artist's mentor. His work appears nationally and internationally in galleries and museums as well as in corporate, university, public and private collections. Condron has been awarded artist residencies at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Heliker Lahotan Foundation. He is a 2017 recipient of a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant, an Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant and a Maryland State Arts Council grant for sculpture.