Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Rhapsodies in Blue: New Works by Andrea Way on Saturday, November 14th, from 3-5pm and an artist talk at 2:30pm.  In the exhibition’s fourteen new mixed media drawings on paper, Way creates expansive abstract images through layering systemic patterning.  Solely employing a symphony of blues in each work, Way’s intricate arrangements of overlays accumulate to form compositions that perfectly balance structure and beauty.  The exhibition will be on view through January 9, 2027.

Since 1980, Andrea Way has utilized a system called Rule-Based Drawing to create her multifaceted drawings using a diverse array of media.  Originally put forward by the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt in 1969 through the phrase “Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically”, the premise of Rule-Based Art is for an artist to come up with a set of simple rules that determine how a work of art is to be created and then follow those rules to their logical endpoint.  In Way’s case, she extrapolates patterns from the world around her and overlays them one atop the other using a small number of rules to resolve the question of how to make each of her marks on the paper’s surface.

In this newest body of work, Andrea Way has taken her usual rule-based methods and incorporated an additional rule into her composition making: a focus on only using different shades of blue in each work.  Way begins each drawing with a distinct pattern and lets the boundaries of the paper determine how it is laid down.  As the sheet fills up, Way’s accumulated layers both reveal and sometimes conceal the process of her making.  

While Way’s choice of patterns in this group of works varies for piece to piece, there are connecting motifs found among them.  In works such as Crossing, Puzzle Crossing, and Hidden Secrets webbed networks of lines cross over and intersect with structural patterns derived from completed puzzles.  In Fathomless Pools and Whirlabout, triangles and parallelograms are surrounded by fields of wavey lines and stripes, while in Making Waves, Square Roots, and Heaven’s Gates arrays of squares form a dense mosaic of shapes and colors, imparting a visual rhythm to each work.  Finally, throughout Spinning and The Doodle Top Suite works, built up layers of repeated small spirals cover each sheet, while modulations of color and densities of form work to create a sense of visual depth.  With hues ranging from deep ultramarines and lapis to rich ceruleans and azures, Way’s drawings embody the delicate beauty found in the balance between methodical precision and serendipitous fortuity. 

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area and now living in Washington, D.C., Andrea Way received her B.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1971.  Over the course of past five decades, Way has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States.  In 2012, her mid-career retrospective Andrea Way: Retrospective 1982–2012 was held at American University Museum in the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C.

Andrea Way’s work can be found in the public collections of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian American Art Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; Fine Art Museums of San Francisco; Honolulu Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; and the Library of Congress, among others.  This is Andrea Way’s first solo exhibition at Paul Thiebaud Gallery.