BIO

Philip Hardy began painting plein air landscapes in his native upstate New York, influenced by the Hudson River School and the impressionists. He studied classical figurative painting and drawing at The Art Students League in New York City, later receiving an MFA with a specialization in painting from The New York Academy of Art. He currently lives and works in NYC.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Noodle Paintings is a new series of abstract works from Philip Hardy. The pieces are constructed out of underpaintings that are then adorned by paint extrusions, applied in organic, curvilinear patterns — like noodles of color that swim or gather over the surface. The works exude curiosity and elan, with a humorous bent that is braided with a metaphysical search for the meaning of painting.

The series’ approach is informed by impasto, a classical oil technique where paint is laid in differing thicknesses. Some areas of the canvas are covered in an excessive amount of paint, creating protrusions on the surface. These interact with light in different ways and emphasize the whites in highlights.

Hardy’s Noodle Paintings is more generally inspired by the Abstract Expressionists of the mid-century New York City scene. Much of the work from this style forego narrative and symbol altogether. Instead, these artists focused on compositional elements and the depth of the picture plane. Hardy’s series returns to and expands on the central question of these artists: what is painting? 

Hardy’s Noodle Paintings connect conceptually and spiritually to this history of the “pure” painting — conveying something absolute about visual expression itself. To handle this subject, his process now includes a meditative practice after preparing the materials in his studio. By reducing his art-making process to highly disciplined, structured, and even ritualized actions, Hardy’s work is a vehicle for singleness of mind and joy not unlike the samadhi searched for by sages for thousands of years.

The series is preoccupied not only with transcendental themes, but also meta-painting, irony, and humor. Hardy’s palettes are often cheerful, almost vapid at first glance. The physicality of his material can present ideas about the very makeup of the universe while resembling icing on a cake or cartoon worms writhing in a candy-colored world. This tension between seeking the ultimate nature of reality and the pleasure of play creates forward momentum in the paintings, giving rise to a visual language that Hardy continuously interprets, extrapolates from, and subverts. 

The Noodle Paintings present viewers with an updated search for the meaning of painting and the pure expression of inner states through color and form. In this experience, the physical manifestation in the body of the extruded paint emerges out of a ritually joyful act. It is an opportunity to smile, from the bliss of transcendence and the exuberant whimsy of the work.