‘There’s Something There… Just Not Godzilla’
On show at Ace Tiger are new paintings by Noah Gould, working in Aptos, California. This exhibition continues Gould’s body of ‘Momentist’ paintings, which draw from modernist and contemporary traditions in oil painting.
The show’s title is: “There’s Something There… Just Not Godzilla”, a reference to the fruitless search for objective meaning or a literal representation of the ‘object’ within the work.
Exhibition Highlights
In the exhibition, mid‑ to large‑scale mixed oil on canvas paintings highlight Gould’s attention to color relationships, line, and composition, as well as a somewhat veiled symbolic narrative tone; what the artist calls ‘Oblique Narrative’. This approach invites the viewer to enter the painting both visually and emotionally.
Viewers can find potent subjective meaning within the body of work and begin to arrive at an extramundane meaning moving through the paintings—a sensation the artist both intends and celebrates as a fundamental attribute of ‘Momentist’ production.
About ‘Momentism’
‘Momentism’, as defined by Gould, is a working method that allows emergent imagery and meaning rather than pre‑determined or prescriptive imagery to advance in the picture space. In this state—allowing imagery and relationship rather than designing them—narrative structures and meaningful associations emerge unhindered by conscious editing.
By using fundamental color, line, and composition techniques as a vehicle to anchor the work into a familiar formal structure, these persuasive narratives and inter‑directed associations freely express themselves to the viewer.
Artist’s Intent
Gould invites us to “ride” the painted surface of each work as if our eye can feel the curves, lines, and transitions of color. This participation encourages the viewer to share in the meaning the artist experiences and the intentions behind each piece.
The witnessing act becomes an inception point of substratal meaning; creation giving rise to further creation, arriving at the sense of itself sharing in the experience of its creation.
But Gould’s work is not meant to be overly serious. ‘Momentism’, and the intentions behind it, are not prescriptive. These paintings offer nothing other than an invitation to be present, setting aside destination or departure—and perhaps saying softly (or loudly) to ourselves, “there’s something there… and it could be Godzilla.”
