In the crisp clean spartan space of the Scott White Gallery at 939 Kalmia St. in Little Italy, there exists a shock of color. This is the work of Tim Bavington, a major figure in the current abstract art movement. His work might be classified as a form of “optical art” or a genetic mutation of the “color field” movement. It also reminds one of the “line and pattern” school. There are two trends in Bavington’s work, commissioned by Scott White for this special show here in San Diego. One trend features straight, vertical, vividly colorful stripes of varying thickness with sharp to blurry edges, which were airbrushed in with acrylic paint on large canvases. The second trend is less linear and formal and features more of a transforming oscilloscope pattern with the stripes blurring into each other or blurring into another vertical background set. Bavington calls the latter type his “psychedelic series.” But in addition to the order and discipline of the stripes, there is a deeper system in Bavington’s work that makes it important, unique and cross-disciplinary. Each painting is based on a fragment of music, such as a guitar riff from a popular rock song by Jimi Hendrix, Cream or Jethro Tull. For each piece, Bavington creates a color key with each note of the music representing a specific color, and the length of the note being the size of the bandwidth of the stripe. Staccato and legato are figured in as the sharpness or fuzziness of the edges of the stripes. Each painting can be thought of as a colorful “barcode” for the music it depicts. While there have been many musical pieces inspired by artwork or literature, this reversal, in which the art is inspired by the music and technically parallel, having been plotted out mathematically, is new and noteworthy. Kathleen Crain, the associate director at Scott White, said this is the first solo show for Bavington in San Diego. “We here at Scott White think that it is important that San Diego knows about Bavington’s work, and it is part of our overall mission to introduce San Diego to the very best and important in modern art,” she said. Bavington was born in 1966 in England. He earned a bachelor’s of fine art from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and a master’s of fine art from the University of Nevada at La Vegas, where he currently resides. Before devoting himself to his art career full time he was an illustrator for “The Simpsons” TV show. Bavington’s work has been collected by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Portland Art Museum. General Mills Corporation, Neimen Marcus and the Hollywood Talent Agency in Beverly Hills also own his work. The Bavington exhibition will run until May 7. For further information call (619) 501-5689 or visit www.scottwhiteart.com.
