Artist Timmy Graham, “Father of The Fourth Dimension,” Opens Solo Exhibit at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery

Artist Timmy Graham stands in front of his painting, Untitled, 12ft x 16ft, Oils on Canvas, 2012

Philadelphia-born artist Timmy Graham has created a painting style that he calls “The Fourth Dimension,” which uses both math and science to organize color and content.

Inspired by the work of Flemish painters Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, 17th century Dutch painter Rembrandt and artists of the Italian Renaissance, Graham’s system blends mathematically derived color combinations with cultural totems.

Inspired by the work of Flemish painters Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, 17th century Dutch painter Rembrandt and artists of the Italian Renaissance, Graham’s system blends mathematically derived color combinations with cultural totems.

Using this system, he has created a series of 13 outsized paintings which will be on display during his first solo exhibition from Tuesday, April 1 – Sunday, April 20, hosted by Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. The exhibition will be on display in the URBN Center Annex’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert St.). The gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Graham will appear at the Pearlstein Gallery on Thursday, April 3, at 5:30 p.m. for an artist’s talk, followed by an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Graham’s canvases are divided into interlocking geometric shapes, spirals and triangles of alternating, vibrating colors. This structure is overlaid with slightly modulated line drawings of sexual-spiritual images of women dancing with snakes, dagger wielding archetypes and erotic gods and goddesses who seem to rise and fall to the surface as the observer is caught between the figures and the color field.

A Fulbright scholar and Pollock-Krasner recipient, Graham has received several awards and fellowships for his work. In 2009, he was awarded full fellowships at The National Art Studio and the CAMAC Centre D’Art in France, along with the Foundation Tenot individual artist grant in Paris. He was named artist in residence at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand in 2010. Beyond the United States, his work has been exhibited in South Africa, South Korea, Germany, France and England, and has been featured in several arts publications around the world, including Art Buzz and New American Painting.

A Fulbright scholar and Pollock-Krasner recipient, Graham has received several awards and fellowships for his work. In 2009, he was awarded full fellowships at The National Art Studio and the CAMAC Centre D’Art in France, along with the Foundation Tenot individual artist grant in Paris. He was named artist in residence at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand in 2010. Beyond the United States, his work has been exhibited in South Africa, South Korea, Germany, France and England, and has been featured in several arts publications around the world, including Art Buzz and New American Painting.

Graham began his formal training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he received a certificate of fine arts. From there, he attended the University of the Arts and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree. More recently, Graham completed graduate level studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, part of Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, is committed to exhibiting novel and experimental art in all contemporary mediums including digital, video, sculpture, photography, graphics and fashion design. Recently relocated to a larger space in Westphal College’s renovated URBN Annex, the Pearlstein Gallery has over 3,500 square feet and invites the public to view exhibits free of charge.