Rose Slivka, art critic, writer

The following was written for the introduction to Frank Wimberley’s “New Paintings” Exhibit at June Kelly Gallery, January 10th to February 5th, 1997, By Rose Slivka:

Frank Wimberley is a natural abstract expressionist. For him, abstraction means the nature of the material and how it behaves in his touch, how his particular gesture and energy at any particular moment affects the tempo and movement of the paint, pigment, the physical relationship of his body in the space of his choice to the material. Wimberley’s abstraction is deeply personal and individually unique. “It’s almost like a thumb print”, he says.

For Frank Wimberley, the act of the art is the dialogue of the artist with his tools and materials, his body in the space and light of the studio, his psyche at the moment of action. Each confrontation of the artist with his surface plane whether it be canvas, paper or wood is an arena for the event, a surface moving inexorably into itself, layer on layer, sometimes naked and sparse, sometimes rich with allusions, and what happens is what happens.

His love of paint is contagious as it resonates with the lyric energy of his abstract stroke – the sense of paint piled by brush, palette knife, rag, tissue and whatever else comes to hand. Wimberley exhilarates at the curl of a brushstroke, the scumble, the grist and the bristle those textures together with the creamy ridges and smooth flat stained ones, with color thinly applied, sometimes combed, sloshed, pulled and scraped.

Jazz, a consistent theme in his work, is expressed in swift brushwork, the unique impulse for improvisation, daring to allow accidents of the creative process remain as a sign of the spontaneous gesture.