With Spirit

Don Driver’s "With Spirit" mixes the unorthodox and creative attitude of a bricoleur with the logic of abstract painting. Assembled from found, non-precious items, it nevertheless hums with the energy generated from carefully contrasted colours, textures and shapes.

Driver’s composition seems casual, but the relationships he creates between objects are always painstakingly considered. The oily sheen of the plastic sheeting contrasts with the matte warmth of the wood. The graphic boldness of the sign and the bright intensity of its colours leap forward into our field of vision, but are seemingly pinned back by the wooden plank braced against them. Playing the colours and physical properties of the work’s components against each other, Driver sets up an elastic tension in his composition. Riffing off the work of abstract colour field painters like Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland, Driver described his work at this time as ‘colour field without the hard edge.’

Driver is best known for his eccentric, poetic, playful and sometimes challenging use of everyday objects. "With Spirit" is a composition in colour, texture and form which breaks out of painting’s frame. It is abstraction with a sense of humour – with spirit – which is fully integrated with daily life.

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