Darren Jordan’s love of drawing the figure led, paradoxically, to a series of charcoal and ink abstractions. Jordan, a printmaker and teacher of digital arts and animation at the Art Institute of York, found himself moving from that process-oriented art form to a more fluid, “immediate” style, using charcoal and India ink to create his 20-by-55 inch works, five of which are now on view at the Kalargyros Gallery.
“Somewhere in the middle of the drawing is when it actually speaks the most,” writes Jordan in his artist’s statement. Quickly done — “I didn’t want to spend more than one sitting on them,” Jordan said at the show’s First Friday opening on June 6 – the drawings hint at figurative elements while remaining abstract, even improvisational. The “unfinished gestures,” the lines, marks and tears, all the things happening on and to the paper, “leave the decisions and interpretations up to the viewer,” Jordan writes. “As people we communicate, not only with words, but with our body language, hand movements and facial expressions. We are all always drawing as we express ourselves. 
My drawings merely capture that expression on paper.” The dimensions and materials of the paintings suggest a Japanese influence, as filtered through abstract expressionism; as a group, the paintings make an eloquent series. (Four of the paintings are shown here and above.)
Kalargyros is also featuring abstract paintings by George M. Clark and almost-abstract landscapes by Constantine Kermes, as well as works by Jason Ward, David Sauer, Joshua Schopf, Brad Horn, Despina Kalargyros and more. The gallery is located at 112 W. Orange St., (717) 394-3898. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Incidentally, “Work in Progress,” a book covering 60 years of Constantine Kermes’s artistic career, will be published in a limited edition this summer; see here for details.
