June 4 – August 15, 2009

Reception: June 27, 2009, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Evolving from his earlier work in watercolor, landscape design, and ceramics, Comer’s thick-textured abstraction is predominantly emotional in spirit. “Comer’s painting is driven by a fury far greater than his or anyone’s or everyone’s,” writes Frank, “it is driven by the fury of everything. While his fluid painting renews the eruptive fervor of abstract expressionist method and its restless questing for a higher, greater truth, the violence that manifests in Comer’s art is not the violence of his soul but the violence of the earth… the violence of rebirth.” Comer’s work relies primarily on texture and color to relay his thoughts. The artist describes the paintings as “excavated artifacts from my subconscious.”

Inspired by nature, the Riverside-based artist works mostly outdoors, letting natural elements assist. Comer prefers to work “primarily on the ground, to be more physically and psychologically connected to the paintings.” Comer’s unconventional method also includes the use of assorted materials such as glass, sand, enamel, and coffee grounds. These artistic recipes result in Comer’s personalized style of thick, raw, textural abstractions.

George Comer: A Ten-Year Retrospective results from the artist’s receiving Best in Show and Viewer’s Choice awards in the Riverside Art Museum’s 2008 Members Exhibition. Long active in the Inland Empire cultural community, Comer was included in RAM’s groundbreaking 2005-6 exhibition, Flow.