Since the early 1970s, Downsbrough has been making works that subtly articulate space by way of simple lines drawn on paper or comparably minimal sculptures—a pair of wooden poles, for instance, or a skeletal rectangular prism suggesting the frame of a building—placed in galleries, gardens, public squares, and other architectural settings.
Downsbrough has said of his drawings, "I had done Two Lines on paper . . . which allowed the concept to continue and fill out a bit, become a little fuller with meanings and able to move into more spheres." With his modestly formed sculptures, the artist creates delicate shifts, thus reframing how we perceive space and our physical relationship to an artwork.
Gallery label from Sites of Reason: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, June 11–September 28, 2014.
