the semi-finalist is: dennis foster

Untitled
2023, gouache on newsprint, 19 1/2" x 29 1/2"
​(photo by Dennis Foster)

Color in Dennis Foster’s work is its own language. In place of words, hues and shades present themselves as a complete story told in a single viewing. A painting by Foster is a book in which every single word on every single page is being uttered at the same time and still, somehow, it all makes sense. Perimeter (2023), for example, announces itself with a measured mix of confidence and vulnerability, with colors that are both bold and remarkably personal. Each one is a voice that holds its own. Instead of drowning each other out, however, they amplify one another like accomplished actors on a stage or singers in a choir. These colors are there, in part, to pull the best out of those around them.

Structure in Foster’s paintings is a vehicle and a scaffold. It carries hues and intensities forward in compositions that feel more snug than forcibly penned in. Everything that appears fragile or elusive - a color, an edge, a subtle chromatic shift - is held tight by an uncomplicated armature that knows exactly how much pressure to exert. In a painting like Morning Room (2024), the motif of the somewhat irregular grid presents two colors - blue and green -  that breathe and nearly escape from either side of the centrally checkered “T.” The generous size allotted to them is their getaway car and best option for exiting the frame, but the composition gently guides them back into place. Adding to the visual load and tension, four colors up top (purple, ochre, maroon and orange) weigh down as if influenced by gravity. As in all of Foster’s work, however, the framework is sound and it’s clear that the top of the “T” will hold. This is a painting that is as solid as it is beautiful.

I’m so pleased to be able to share my interview with Dennis Foster this month on The Semi-Finalist. In it he talks about color, process, music and more. I have such a strong visual memory of being in his studio last March, surrounded by his paintings, and I’m already looking forward to my next opportunity to see more of them in person. 

- David Schell

Dennis Foster in is studio.
​(photo by David Schell)

The Semi-Finalist: ​Tell me a bit about how your life as an artist started. What was your path and who were your mentors (if any)?

Dennis Foster: I grew up in Southern California and spent most of my teenage years skateboarding and snowboarding. I got into photography around this time and started making photos of my friends while on trips or just being around one another. I really enjoyed the documentative aspect, but at some point I found myself more interested in trying to make photographs without being reliant on a set of people that would need to be present for the process to happen. I really enjoyed just aimlessly driving around looking for things to photograph and for situations to present themselves. It should be noted I was not making any good photographs at this time - ha! In 2005 I moved to Portland, OR, where I decided to attend Pacific NorthWest College Of Art with photography being my focus. I had no business at the time being a student. My scope of artistic inspirations was so narrow and uninformed that I had no idea what I wanted to be making. (A sincere apology to all of my professors at this time) I think arriving completely unprepared for that experience woke me up to the realization that I had never arrived at a discipline and was therefore under-equipped to gain anything from continuing schooling. Around this time, and I credit the Northwest's particularly isolating feeling, I started to do a bit of drawing and experimenting with paints. My inspirations were still coming from, or rather culturally adjacent to, skateboarding - Artist/ Surfers like Barry Mcgee and Thomas Campbell, but I also now had been exposed to people like Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley. I arrived very late to any sort of Art History and grew up in an area of California not particularly hospitable to The arts, but seeing work like that really clicked for me in the sense that it could be reduced to a few elements and be very effective.

Italian Stained Glass
2024, flashe/acrylic on canvas with pine frame, 9" x 12"
​(photo by Dennis Foster)

S-F: ​When I was in your studio, we talked about feeling connected to other artists and the fine line between inspiration and overt influence. Who’s in your visual family and how do you think about carving out a unique voice while using a reductive approach to image making?

DF: There's only so many visual languages to tap into and I rather like seeing work where I can identify the reference point it's coming from while still retaining its own essence. I think especially as I feel like I'm honing in on my own personal visual language, I can look back and identify work that self-admittedly leans overtly into particular influences. I think dealing with color field paintings, it's going to be an obstacle to navigate. Painters like David Novros, Brice Marden, Jack Bush - work that's relative to each other and seems to be pulled from the same well, though they all have their own personal imprint. What's remarkable is taking a distilled element such as color and making it your own. I think for that to be possible it must live within an actualized body of work. That's where the personal visual language is born.

Above and below: Wake Up New in the Project Room at Nationale, 2023
(photos by Mario Gallucci)

S-F: ​Your work strikes me as being primarily about a visual experience. Is that accurate? And can you talk about why it is or isn’t (in an age of global upheaval, how does this fit in)?

DF: In a sense, yes. Ultimately, what gets produced is purely visual. But painting is largely, for me, an act of therapy. I think a lot of subconscious emotions come to the surface when I am actively working, so in a way the paintings are instilled with personal conflict. The overall goal I'm hoping to achieve, especially with current work being made, is a sense of calm. That's an especially sought after feeling for all things considered within a worldview.​

Long Thought
2023, flashe/acrylic on canvas with pine frame, 16" x 20"
​(photo by Mario Gallucci)

S-F: Your work also has a musical quality to it. Talk about that.

DF: Well, I want the work to activate each other, so much like the instrumentation of a song, I want the individual elements within each painting to be communicating to one another. I like to borrow color schemes and reintroduce them into paintings when working on a series. There's a rhythm to color that's visceral, so if I want to present a particular thematic feeling, I'll employ recurring color to tell the story. I think this acts as a good tool for grounding the work. You can identify a storyline of sorts and the paintings come back to each other.

Above: Morning Room
2024, flashe/acrylic on canvas with pine frame, 9" x 12"
​(photo by Dennis Foster)
Below: Untitled
2024, flashe/acrylic on canvas with pine frame, 16" x 20"
(photo by David Schell)

SF: ​When I first entered your studio, I remember thinking about how your work has a wonderful way of activating the space around it. Can you talk about your paintings and their relationship to architecture and how you want them to interact with context?

DF: I've always made work that was in relation / response to whatever space I was making the work in at the time. Currently my studio has a rather tall ceiling on one side with a slanted roof, but the overall space is quite small. I had been making these somewhat large striped panel pieces that I intended to hang together as one solid painting but the spatial restraints were becoming unsustainable. Eventually what came of that was to hang them towards the top of the ceilings, acting as almost columns or pillars and freeing up space on the walls beneath where an entirely smaller yet complimentary body of work could be hung. It becomes an extension of the problem solving that occurs within the canvas but opens up new possibilities in regards to interacting with the work. 

A view of Perimeter and smaller works in the studio.
(Perimeter, 2023, flashe/acrylic on canvas, 48" x 108")
(photo by David Schell)

SF: ​Who are you looking at (dead or alive)?

DF: I love how musical and alive the paintings of Stanley Whitney are. The movement in Marina Adams' work. Suzan Frecon while we're on the topic of calm - also Lynne Woods Turner. Harriet Korman, Matt Kleberg, Ethan Cook, Mary Heilmann, and especially Patricia Treib!! What a painter!!!

Above: Works on paper in the studio.
Below: Objects in the studio.
​(photos by David Schell)

SF: What’s next (shows, residencies, etc.)?

DF: Making paintings for a TBD show in Los Angeles in the Fall? I'd love to show beyond The West Coast if the opportunity were to arise!

Above and below: in the studio, Los Angeles, CA.
(photo by David Schell)

Warm Room
2024, flashe/acrylic on canvas with pine frame, 9" x 12"
(photo by David Schell)

You can see more of Dennis Foster's work:
     - on instagram: @finessedobson
     - on his website
     - on the Nationale site (Project Room)

Dennis Foster in his studio
(Photo by Kara Holekamp)