The Suffolk University Gallery presents Materials Matter 2, a group exhibit of paintings by Lavaughan Jenkins and friends and the second of a two-part series focused on the Boston-based artist, from Dec. 4, 2018, through Jan. 22, 2019.

A reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in the gallery, featuring a talk with the artists at 6 p.m.

The two exhibits—Materials Matter 1 and Materials Matter 2—notate the continual elasticity of painting as it has been evolving over centuries, as an inverse mirror of the ever-accelerating changes in our culture in the Digital Age, and how that is changing the nature and perception of painting. They open up the conversation among practitioners who are pushing the boundaries of the medium. The works shown are compelling both individually and collectively, as each artist has a different relationship with that conversation and with the material itself.

Artists

Lavaughan Jenkins’ paintings push the boundaries of the medium by using oil paint to make three dimensional work, or “3D Paintings.”

The late Julie S Graham was compelled by the overlooked, the uncertain, and the unpredictable. She constructs improbable combinations of paint and materials; colors and textures randomly collide to form surprising and odd relationships.

KT Lane, Class of 2016, works in a reactively rigorous subtractive and additive process. Building up and then sanding, sawing, cutting, and beating down dense applications of paint, media, and industrial materials, the process is often evident in the final work.

Josh Jefferson is one of a new generation of painters who are actively engaging the figure as their primary subject matter. Drawing from a range of sources, including comics and art history, Jefferson strives to imbue his work with the directness of its facture, and the content of his paintings is inextricably linked to the simplicity of their making.

Destiny Palmer says that her work becomes the solution to the questions and thoughts evoked by her surroundings. Within the work, she relates color, pattern, and texture to sound. What does a sound look like, or what would a color sound like? These are steps in creating a composition that is based on a visual language.